Kings of the sky who protect nature: Serbia is taking big steps to preserve these vultures

Photo: Wikimedia/Pierre Dalous

They call it the King of the Sky - the griffon vulture, with a wingspan of about 3 meters and weighing up to 11 kilograms, is the largest bird in our region. The Special Nature Reserve Uvac has the largest griffon vulture nesting colony in Serbia and one of the largest in the Balkans. About 600 individuals cruise the skies of our country, reports RTS.

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Griffon vultures have lived in our area for about 700,000 years. Due to frequent poisonings throughout the Balkans, this bird was brought to the brink of extinction. Nevertheless, Serbia is taking big steps in order to preserve it.

"We put satellite transmitters on the birds and based on them track where they fly to. Satellite transmitters report their locations to us every day so we can learn some other things about them we couldn't before. We also have video surveillance over the feeding ground. There we monitor the individuals, each one is photographed and archived, so we can also estimate the numbers in the flock. It is one of the most successful programs in the Balkans," says Dr. Sinisa Marinkovic, an ornithologist.

Griffon vultures are also present in our medieval art and heraldry.

"In addition to the fact that griffon vultures are a species of national importance, they have great sanitary importance, they clean up nature. They clean up carcasses in nature and prevent infection," said Marinkovic.

"I think that the state should stand behind the program to return the griffon vulture to eastern Serbia," he explains.

"We now have a very dense population of these birds in western Serbia, but they cannot move on their own. We mark them and put on wing tags, to identify them," said Marinkovic.

(Telegraf.rs)