The Bearded Vulture in the Pyrenees

Surprising and grandiose like the mountain itself, the Bearded Vulture spreads its 3 metre wingspan over certain valleys in the Pyrenees.

Considered the largest raptor in Europe along with the (vautour moine), this last link in the food chain is an major star in the biodiversity of this mountain range.

From the eastern Pyrenees to the Basque country, certain names of cols and summits (Ugatze, Cap Arrouy, Trencalos...) as well as fossil remains over 250,000 years old attest to its presence through the millenia in the whole of the Pyrenean chain.

An inoffensive bone breaker...
Unique among vertebrates, 80% of the Bearded Vulture's food is composed of bones, feet, tendons and ligaments from the carcasses of wild and domestic hooved animals which it can ingest thanks to an elastic (gosier). Blessed with powerful digestive juices, it is able to utilise the proteins, fats and minerals contained in this very special food. Totally inoffensive, the bone-breaker, like other carrion-feeding vultures in the Pyrenees, helps dispose of animal carcasses in the mountains, helping to keep them clean.

The final link in the food chain, it competes with no other species of animal.

The Bone-breaker:
The Bearded vulture uses a very unusual technique to enable it to ingest large bones: it breaks them.

To do this, it flies above piles of stones with a bone in its talons and lets it drop on them, shattering the bone into pieces small enough to swallow.

A very long reproductive cycle
In the Pyrenees, the adult vultures generally mate for life. Each couple keeps to a territory averaging about 360 km2 comprised of different zones: for feeding and hunting, resting, taking off, and reproducing. In October the mating displays begin. The couple then establishes its nest on sheltered ledges or in caves in imposing cliffs between 600m and 2100m altitude.

From egg to adult...
The vulture lays one or two eggs between the end of december and the beginning of March. For about two months, the adults take turns incubating them. A single offspring will be raised. During the course of the summer, it will make its first flight after having passed four months in the nest. The first few days following its first flight are especially critical because the juvenile flies very little and is sitting in a very exposed and dangerous site. It will remain dependent upon its parents for several months. During this period the young vulture must acquire flying and feeding techniques necessary for its survival. It will leave the nest for good only when the parents start a new reproductive cycle and push the youngster out of their territory.

The juvenile leads an erratic existence. Once an adult at 7 years of age, it settles down with a mate and stays within the couple's territory all year round. However, the first successful reproduction doesn't come about until it is about 10 years old. Its lifespan in the wild is estimated to be between 20 and 30 years.

The most endangered raptor in Europe
AOnce widespread in all the mountainous regions of southern Europe, the Bone-breaker has seen its area of habitation reduced drastically since the beginning of the 19th century. Today considered the raptor the most threatened in Europe, its numbers in Europe are estimated to be less than 140 couples of which three quarters are in the Pyrenees. In Spain, nearly 80 couples have been counted. In France, the Bearded vulture only subsists naturally in Corsica (10 couples), in the Alps and in the Pyrenees (29 couples). Harboring about 25 % of the European population, France holds a important responsibility for the survival of this threatened species.

In fact, the Bearded vulture, like other great raptors, has undergone severe persecutions -- poisoining, direct destruction, denesting -- which have led the species to the edge of destruction. Today, a certain number of threats affect the species.
* Direct threats to the population
* Disturbances near the nests during nesting period
Particularly sensitive to disturbances, the Bearded Vulture is a timid species. At its nesting site, the vulture will flee if a walker comes within 700 metres. Its instinct for self-preservation favours the reproducing adults at the expense of the young. Any intrusion near the nest during the period of reproduction is liable to cause the abandonment of the nest, risk of predation, cooling of the egg and thus no offspring.
* Lack of food sources


Solutions for the future
In order to assure the survival of the species on the northern slops of the Pyrenees, the Ministry of the Environment validated in February 1997 a plan for restoring the Bearded vulture.

This plan must be renewed this year in coordination with our Spanish partners, and has as its objective to restore the native population of Bearded Vultures on the whole of the northern slopes of the Pyrenees.

The implementation of this plan rests on a large concertation with local communities and the active participation of all the partners.

The future of the Bone-breaker in the Pyrenees will be that which the mountain dwellers wish to give it. Man and Bone-breaker have cohabited in the Pyrenees for thousands of years; solutions exist to reforge the links that have been a bit weakened.

— Philippe SERRE
LPO Pyrénées
Plan de restauration du Gypaète barbu

Photos : Oscar DIEZ - FCQ