The return of vultures to Europe | DW Documentary

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Some twenty years ago vultures were close to extinction in much of Europe. Since then, the birds have been successfully reintroduced in parts of Germany, Spain and France. They may be back, but vultures still face many dangers.

With a wingspan of up to three meters, the bearded vulture is one of the largest birds of prey in Europe. In Germany, the species had been completely eradicated. Now, thanks to a special program, the bearded vulture is back. Biologist Toni Wegscheider has been heading a reintroduction initiative in the Bavarian Alps for a regional NGO since 2021. Under the scheme, two young vultures from special European breeding stations are released each summer into the Berchtesgaden National Park. The Bavarian organization for bird protection works together with similar projects in Europe. Near Cazorla in Spain, Toni Wegscheider gets to see bearded vultures hatching. In France, he swaps GPS data on the bearded vultures with his colleague Pascal Orabi. All birds released into the wild are fitted with radio transmitters. The creatures’ movements can be tracked daily, with some of them traveling huge distances and even going all the way to Germany. One female bearded vulture from Germany decided to head to France, though, where the first bearded vulture pairs are breeding in the wild. Numbers of griffon vultures and cinereous vultures are recovering between the Cevennes mountain range and the Pyrenees.
In Spain, in particular, vultures are thriving. But Ernesto Álvarez, the president of the nature conservation organization GREFA, remains concerned about the dangers that the birds face - both new and old. They are the most regular patients in GREFA’s wild animal hospital. Frequently, vultures are brought in after collisions with wind turbines or electricity masts. The scavengers are particularly at risk from toxic substances in landfill sites or lead bullets in the carcasses of wild animals.

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