The lammergeier: feeding, black legend and recovery of a vulnerable animal.

In ‘Más de uno’ we try to do justice to an animal that has been defamed for centuries and is now recovering in Spain: the bearded vulture. The bearded vulture is a bird that is beautiful, majestic, magnificent, but on which has weighed a terrible black legend. This animal, inhabitant of the highest peaks, has been accused of attacking men, of pouncing on mountaineers and shepherds in an attempt to throw them off their feet. It was also said to kidnap children and to be a cattle rustler. This false image of a bloodthirsty, harmful and almost demonic bird contributed to the fact that this animal, the bearded vulture, was on the verge of extinction in Spain and is still a vulnerable species today. At the beginning of the 1980s there were only two small populations of lammergeyers left in our country: between 20 and 30 pairs in the Pyrenees, and an even smaller one, of a couple of pairs, in the Sierra de Cazorla, in Jaén, which disappeared in 1986. Today this species is recovering, there are more than a thousand specimens that can be seen not only in Andalusia and the Pyrenees, but also in the Picos de Europa and now also in the Valencian Community.
Nests of bearded vultures from the XVII and XVIII centuries Partly thanks to the black legend that hovers over the bearded vulture, it has been possible to have proof that it existed in the Valencian Community.
Raúl Mérida, General Director of Natural and Animal Environment of the Valencian Community, and one of those responsible for a project that has reintroduced the bearded vulture in the area of Tenencia de Benifasar, in Castellón, explains how expeditions were carried out to find nests from the 17th and 18th centuries. In these nests it was known that they belonged to bearded vultures because of the remains of bones, their main food. When eaten, the excrement is pure calcium carbonate, which fossilizes in a very short time. Thus, the fossils found in the surroundings of these nests have served to classify their inhabitants.
In the Valencian Community, therefore, there were bearded vultures, as in other parts of Spain, but the pressure of the demography, made that little by little they were cornered in other areas such as the Pyrenees or the northern area.

What is the reason for the black legend?
The Consellería de Medio Ambiente (Department of the Environment) has launched a project whereby they release young chicks that may leave, but every so often, some return. This is a program that started six years ago and this year, two males have returned. In the next few years, a female will probably return, so there will be reproduction and, little by little, the bearded vulture colony will grow.
Every so often, “we will see them flying and it will make us look at the sky”, something very important for human beings, says Raúl, who defends the beauty of the flight of these animals. This will also attract environmental and ornithological tourism, which will help to reduce rural depopulation.

How do these animals feed?
Gerardo Báguena, vice-president and director of the Bearded Vulture Conservation Foundation, declares himself an “admirer” of these species that “have the daily challenge of surviving in a hostile environment”. The bearded vulture is the only known species in the world that feeds only on bones. For this reason, it has to fly between nine and eleven hours a day to reach the 350-400 kilos of bone it needs per year to survive and raise a single chick, explains Gerardo. Bearded vultures wait until the rest of the animals eat
These animals do not hunt, do not fish, do not parasitize food, nor do they cause the death of other species. In fact, they do what evolution has taught them is most efficient: they wait. Bearded vultures wait for the vultures to eat, break up the carcasses and consume the remaining bones by recovering protein from these bones. Normally, they usually eat limb bones, which are the easiest to digest. In just 6-7 hours, a 30 cm leg of lamb can be absorbed and dissolved. With the larger bones, they throw them against the rocks to cut them up, hence their name. Bearded Vulture Breeding Center
Teresa Cardona works as a veterinarian within the program of rescue, breeding, release and monitoring of bearded vultures in the Iberian Peninsula at the Human Isolation Breeding Center in La Afranca, Zaragoza. There, they raise lammergeier chicks in incubators, tricking them into thinking they are in a nest in the mountains. To feed them, they use realistic puppets of adult lammergeiers. These animals grow very fast: they are born with 250 grams and in just two months they weigh 4.5 kilos. Instead of ultrasound scans, they perform candling, Teresa explains. In a dark room, “a very strong light is projected on one end of the egg and it is a game of Chinese shadows”. With the light, the embryo can be seen and the specialists do a follow-up.

How are they prepared for their insertion in nature?
At the center they take care of the lammergeier chicks during the whole hatching period and, at the most, until they are two months old. Then, they are transferred to the Odessa National Park where they stay for a couple of months more. Finally, they are transferred to their final destination for their insertion in the environment. Source:
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