Born in Prague zoo in June 2018 and then freed in Bulgaria, Anna has next proceeded her first migration!

It turned out to be quite difficult for the young vulture whom required an emergency rescue by the ornithological team of Sarimazi.

Read the following to discover her story in more details. 

 Anna is a young Egyptian vulture born in captivity in Prague zoo in June 2018. She had the chance to be a part of the handful of birds selected for release in the nature of Bulgaria, as part of the project for the preservation of the species.

At the age of three month, Anna was donated by Prague zoo and placed with another chick in a bird “room” (see more FR) especially built for Madzharovo cliffs in rhodope mountains.

She spent 3 weeks in the room adapting to the local conditions and observing wild vultures flying nearby. One morning, the door opened, letting Anna out for the biggest step of her life: her first flight!

At the beginning of September, about two weeks after her first flight, Anna continued her important journey: her first migration!

Every autumn, Egyptian vultures leave their breeding area in direction of south. They fly on more than 5 000 km to reach their overwintering area in Africa where they spend winter months and go back in Bulgaria after that.

This journey is long and dangerous for them.

Anna, like her fellows, crossed the sea of Marmara and continued her path to the south through Turkey. She opted for a tricky migration strategy: she started earlier in the morning, unlike others young vultures, achieving bigger distance without eating on her journey.

She reached 1700 km in only 9 days with the average speed of 190 km by day. She reached the south of turkey near the city of Mersin where bad weather, violent wind and rain forced her to stop. Therefore, she chose to hide on a tree based on a steep slope at the foot of the mountain. During the next 3 days, Anna has to stay still due to the bad weather situation. However, even after the return of the sun, the withdraw of the wind and the passage of others migratory birds to the south, Anna stayed still on the same steep hillside.

The rescue

Receiving that information by the GPS transmitter placed on the back of Anna, ornithologists decided to rescue her because she keeps showing no interaction. Fortunately, her location wasn’t far from Sarimazi, where a collaborative team of BSPB and Doga Dernegi did the the following of migration of raptors at this moment.

Going on the spot, they hoped to see Anna alive! When they arrived on the spot where the signal was lastly emitted, Anna was found soaked in a niche of the cliff, on the ground full of water. She was so much exhausted that she didn’t even tried to flee. She seemed starving for a long time and found a natural pond where she could drink and stay hydrated. e

Anna has carefully been transported in a house in Sarimazi. Her weight was only 1,44kg, which is about 500g less than she must be for her age! The veterinary from « Wildlife Rehabilitation and Breeding Center of Green Balkans » gave precious advices to save her.

With good health care and very nutritive food, Anna took 240g in 3 days. She was getting stronger and confident, fighting with anyone touching her food.

However, since she can’t feed herself in the wild, releasing her would have been too dangerous. They decided it would be better for Anna to get her back in Bulgaria, which has been administratively difficult.

Indeed, thanks to all the dedicated peoples, 1 year after, all the legal procedures have been respected and Anna went back in Bulgaria!

Thanks to the numerous persons and organizations that permitted a good end for this story: BSPB, Green Balkans, Doga Dernegi, Prague zoo, Faruk Yalcin Zoo, Rehabilitation center of Wild life in Karacabey, General direction of conservation of nature and national park of Turkey, Ministry of farming and forest of turkey, Ministry of environment and waters of Bulgaria, Bulgarian agency in food safety, Sofia zoo and volonteers vet.

Source : https://www.4vultures.org/2019/11/24/joint-efforts-save-young-egyptian-vulture-anna/

Pictures of Volen Arkumarev