Aragon and Andalusia exchange bearded vulture chicks to diversify the genetics of the species in the peninsula.
The centers specialized in the conservation of this species in Guadalentín, in Jaén, and La Alfranca, in Zaragoza, have contributed two young each. When they develop, they will be released in the Sierra de Gredos and the Picos de Europa. Aragon and Andalusia have exchanged four lammergeier chicks with the aim of diversifying the genetics of the existing populations in the Iberian Peninsula. An initiative in which the two autonomous governments and two conservationist entities, the Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture (FCQ) and the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), collaborate, and which is contemplated in the Strategy for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture in Spain and Portugal, currently in the drafting phase. According to the signed protocol, two specimens born in the Specialized Breeding Center of the Bearded Vulture of Guadalentín, located in Cazorla (Jaén), managed by the VCF, have been transferred to the Breeding Center in Human Isolation of the Alfranca, managed by the FCQ, from where two chicks born in their facilities have been derived to the center located in Jaén. In this way, says the Aragonese Executive in a press release, when they successfully complete their development, the young lammergeyers will be released in the reintroduction projects that the VCF and the FCQ carry out in Andalusia, Central System (Gredos) and Picos de Europa, thus ensuring greater genetic diversity of the species in the Iberian Peninsula. Connecting Iberian and European populations. The collaborative work now initiated will allow testing a new methodology to advance in the conservation of the Bearded Vulture in Spain, facilitating the mobilization of specimens from breeding units that are genetically under-represented in the European gene pool. It should be remembered that the species is catalogued as endangered in France, Italy, Greece, Andorra, Switzerland and Spain. Both foundations believe it is necessary to continue working in the short and medium term to consolidate the incipient Iberian peripheral subpopulations of the species and to promote their interconnection through biological corridors, which also connect them with the Pyrenean population and allow the fight against the main threats that still affect the species at a global level (the illegal use of poison, lead poisoning, collisions with power lines and the availability of food) to be extended. In this sense, according to the specialists, this exchange of specimens “is an unprecedented event for the conservation of the Bearded Vulture in the Iberian Peninsula that underlines the importance of cooperation and joint work of the participating entities and public administrations”. All the actions implemented with the species are developed in accordance with the guidelines established in the Action Plan for the species approved by the European Commission in 2014, and in the Strategy for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture in Spain, developed by the Bearded Vulture Working Group and approved by the National Commission for the Protection of Nature on July 4, 2000, and which is now in the process of revision and updating.
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