January 2020: situation of Lammergeier breeding population in Andalusia.
馃嚞馃嚙Preliminary situation of the breeding population of bearded Vulture in Andaluc铆a:
Hello friends. We will now share with you how our wild Bearded Vultures are doing at the beginning of the breeding season.
1) Hortelano and Marchena are already sitting on egg and so they kicked off the season
2) Tono and Blimunda are still mating and tidying up the nest. The egg is expected this week or the next one.
3) Encina paired Bigup (hacking released 2015). The former male,
Sans贸n, is missing and was last seen on July 31st. The are mating now,
with frequent copulations and building up the nest despite Bigup’s young
age.
4) Rayo and Estela are still paired together but we are to wait to see if the finally engage breeding this year.
5) Vera and Guadalquivir are amidst the mating process too and so it
wouldn’t be surprising for them to lay egg this year. If so, this would
be the first breeding attempt in Castril and Granada Province after
decades when they become extinct after mass poisoning in the past.
6) Nerpio and Sonia are still paired together. The thorough monitoring
of the pair is still ongoing to find out if they attempt breeding this
year. The female was released on 2015 and so in theory is still too
young to breed but she is the same age than Blimunda and Marchena when
they first successfully bred. So, breeding cannot be completely ruled
out.
7) Viola and an unidentified adult male are at the moment in
full mating process and building up the nest. We expect this new couple
to lay egg in January.
As you can see, the onset of the breeding
season seems promising and might bring wonderful news. We will be
keeping you all posted as news come up.
Unfortunately,
this outcome is the exception to the rule since illegal wildlife
poisoning rarely gets properly investigated and even more rarely reaches
court and a conviction.
