The project for the study and recovery of the Egyptian vulture (Neoprhon pernocterus) in Fuerteventura has recorded the best results since it was launched in 1999, and has allowed 5 breeding pairs to settle on the island of Lanzarote, which join the 55 breeding pairs already consolidated in Fuerteventura. In total, there are now 60 pairs of these vultures or Egyptian vultures, compared to the 20 that survived in Fuerteventura in 1999.
The director of the Doñana Biological Station, José Antonio Donázar, explained that "we currently estimate about 270 specimens of different ages between both islands, the only ones in the Canary Islands where this species is preserved", which is considered in danger of extinction in the Catalog of Threatened Species of the Canary Islands. Donázar met this past Wednesday with the Minister of Environment of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, Natalia Évora, to take stock of the development of the current breeding and chick ringing campaign, which will culminate in July.
Natalia Évora stressed that "in recent years no cases of poisoning have been detected, and that is already a positive fact. The signaling measures for power lines are also giving good results, as they have managed to significantly reduce accidents." The work of 2014 counted 35 new chicks that have managed to survive a year later, that of 2015 will also be very similar or even higher, tripling the number of new specimens that were recorded only a few years ago.
The balance of the recovery work carried out so far "shows that, faced with the danger of the Egyptian vulture disappearing that we suffered just over a decade ago, the population is currently stabilized in Fuerteventura, with 55 breeding pairs and in the process of natural re-colonization towards the island of Lanzarote, with 5 pairs, when there was only one pair located in the Chinijo archipelago", say from the Majorero council.
Regarding the natural colonization of Lanzarote, the researcher José Antonio Donázar points out that "it makes sense, considering the densification that the species has experienced in Fuerteventura, once the population has recovered on the island".
High technology to follow the recovery
Natalia Évora and José Antonio Donázar also spoke about the tagging project of the new specimens born this year. So far, 27 chicks have been tagged, installing a GPS transmitter that allows permanent monitoring. Over the next few months, it is expected to be able to tag at least another twenty specimens. "GPS tracking is very useful, not only because it allows us to locate each specimen, but because it defines the usual routes and the spaces in which it develops its life, so it guides us when planning actions to avoid affecting its habitats", said the Minister of Environment of Majorera.
The genetic studies carried out on the species in the laboratory have made it possible to determine that the one in Fuerteventura is a species of Egyptian vulture that has evolved in isolation with respect to others. "Already in the chronicles of the conquest collected in Le Canarien, there is talk of 'some white birds that ate the filth'", explains the Island Corporation of Fuerteventura. For Donázar, it is "logical that according to human behavior the Egyptian vulture is in one situation or another depending on the moment". For example, the birth rate experienced a significant decrease in 2012, which is estimated to have been due to the marked drought and the application of the regulations that require the removal of the carcasses of dead livestock from the field.
In addition to power lines and poison, the survival of the Egyptian vulture has always been closely related to the disturbances generated by human activity, the action of predators such as cats and crows, the affection of pathogens to which the species is vulnerable, possibly due to its low genetic variability, or the presence in the organism of individuals of persistent toxic pollutants such as lead, which are transmitted from generation to generation.
The 'Phoenix Bird' of the Majos
The 'guirre' is the aboriginal name by which the Egyptian vulture is known in the Canary Islands. It is the only species of vulture that lives in the islands, and the one in Fuerteventura is also the southernmost population in the European Union and the only one belonging to the Canarian subspecies (called Neoprhon pernocterus majorensis). The Egyptian vulture is also the only scavenging bird of prey in the Canary Islands.
In Fuerteventura, as explained by the Cabildo, this bird also has "great cultural importance". "Many legends about this vulture, transmitted by oral tradition for centuries, show the consideration of sacred bird that, without a doubt, had among the Majos before the arrival of the first Europeans. One of them, related to the myth of the Phoenix Bird, ensures that when they feel death, they fly to the sky and vanish into the air"
