Vultures, nature’s cleanup crew, get new lease of life in Cyprus

KORFI, Cyprus Sept 28 (Reuters) – Cyprus launched griffon vultures into the wild on Wednesday within the newest try to spice up a as soon as thriving inhabitants now critically endangered by poisoning.

The island’s largest chook of prey has seen its inhabitants fall dramatically to the smallest in Europe in current many years, both from unintentional poisoning or altering farming methods leaving them in need of meals.

Earlier this 12 months, the inhabitants suffered a large loss from poisoning, decreasing numbers to only 8, conservationists say.

They are going to be joined by eight vultures from Spain, residence to Europe’s largest inhabitants of griffon vultures, which have been launched on Wednesday within the mountains north of the coastal metropolis of Limassol. They kind a gaggle of 15 delivered to the island final 12 months, with seven launched in mid-September.

One other 15 are anticipated from Spain in November. Prior to now decade, Cyprus had additionally introduced griffon vultures from Crete.

“We have been solely left with eight birds due to the poison baits positioned within the countryside primarily to kill foxes and canine,” stated Melpo Apostolidou, challenge coodinator at BirdLife Cyprus, one of many companions within the half EU-funded ‘Life with Vultures’ challenge.

The birds with names like “Pablo” and “Zenonas” have been fitted with satellite tv for pc trackers to watch their actions.

Huge, gangly and smelly, Griffon vultures play an important function as nature’s clean-up crew, feeding off useless carcass and decreasing the unfold of illness. However the usage of banned poisons to kill perceived pests which the scavenging chook will then feed on has a knock-on impact.

Nicos Kassinis, a senior officer with Cyprus’s Sport and Fauna Service, stated authorities have been working a number of feeding stations and had arrange canine items educated to detect poison bait. “It’s a significant issue,” he stated.

Conservationists say solely when the usage of poison is successfully addressed can the chook begin to thrive once more. “Even when we proceed to convey vultures from elsewhere, we’re simply delaying their extinction if we do not do something to scale back the frequency of poisoning incidents,” Apostolidou stated.

Reporting By Michele Kambas and Yiannis Kourtoglou; Modifying by Emelia Sithole-Matarise

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