TEN YOUNG griffon vultures, which were saved by the locals last year and rehabilitated in the Beli Rescue Centre for griffon vultures, were released back into the wild.

Each individual that is returned to nature holds a high value because of being nearly extinct in this area in the last couple of years. The griffon vultures named Histra, Veles, Mokos, Cres, Fojiska, Krusija, Hana, Andrija, Niko, and Sasa M. are now flying through the sky above the island of Cres. 

Reportedly, the island’s residents deserve the credit for saving the griffon vultures because they bring in the injured chicks after they find them.

The griffon vultures are strictly protected species by the law, and in Croatia they nest only on the islands of Cres, Plavnik, Krk, and Prvic, but in searching for food they fly over even broader territory, inducing the islands Rab and Pag, as well as coastal hinterlands, from the Istrian Cicarija to the coastal slopes of Velebit. 

For many years, the Primorje-Gorski Kotar county has been investing in the work of Beli Rescue Centre for griffin vultures. Gorski Kotar is currently implementing an EU project in order to obtain a Visitor Centre for three large beasts that live in that area. 

Griffon vultures are scavengers and feed only on carcasses of mammals. By patiently flying and easily circulating over the pastures, they are very successful in finding carcasses. They feed in large groups and quickly and thoroughly eat the carcasses to the bones.

That’s exactly one of the primary griffon vultures’ roles - they play the so-called “hygienic” role in the ecosystem, as they prevent or significantly reduce the possible spread of infectious diseases. That fact is especially expressed in the areas where the disposal of animal waste and carcasses mostly depends on griffon vultures and other scavenging birds. 

The Centre’s report states that some of the rehabilitated griffon vultures are equipped with GPS transmitters to track their movement. The usage of satellite technology gives us extremely valuable data about their way of life, movements, and migrations. 

One of the griffon vultures from the Centre is Kruno, released from the Rescue Centre in the spring of 2018, and we can see him migrating in the winter to the Middle East - in the three-border area of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. 

One of them is currently in the French Provence and has been living in a colony for a long time, so the possibility of returning to Kvarner is not excluded. However, the majority of the Croatian griffon vultures return to the Kvarner area to nest after they reach sexual maturity.