The AES “St. Nikola” Early alarm system saves rare Griffon vulture

Октомври 25, 2017

 The Early alarm system of the AES “St Nikola” wind park helped save the rare Griffon vulture K4N. The bird (released on September 14 from Nature Park Sinite Kamani) spent over a month roaming throughout Eastern Bulgaria. It was tagged with satellite transmitter and is being tracked by our team.

That’s how the exact location of the vulture K4N was determined near the wind energy park near Shabla. A few days before that the bird had flown into Romania and had spent the night in the area of Tulchea. The satellite information led to appeals through social media to local conservationists to visit the location and check the vulture’s condition.

On October 8th, the ornithologists on duty at the wind park – Yanko Yankov and Kiril Bedev, found the injured bird close to the park. Despite the bad weather conditions, the bird was fed frequently and managed to recover quickly.

During the next days, K4N changed its location, while the operating team of the “St. Nikola” wind park coordinated  stopping the wind turbines on bird’s way to prevent any damage to the vulture. Later, a Vultures Back to Life team tracked and stated the safe departure of K4N from the area. It was observed near the feeding sites in the Eastern Balkan Mountains, but was finally attracted by migrating stork and eagle flocks, as it joined them to reach the Strandja Mountains.

K4N was then caught by local people and transported to a Green Balkans Wildlife Rescue Center to be rehabilitated and recover before its next release. So far, the second release of inexperienced vultures show good adaptation and success.