At least five new bearded vulture chicks will be introduced into the Picos de Europa National Park throughout 2019, where they will be added to the “record” of seven animals released in 2018, according to the Bearded Vulture Foundation, whose objective is to stabilize and expand the population of the species in this area where it became extinct in the middle of the last century. Another result of the reintroduction work, carried out by the foundation with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, within the framework of the LIFE+ Red Quebrantahuesos project, is the fact that “the seven” are within the Picos de Europa National Park and none of them have left the Atlantic coast. which points to good adaptation results.

The aim is to form new stable population nuclei outside the Pyrenees, where 95 percent of the species in Spain lives. This is “almost the same” as saying that it is the world’s population, since 85 percent of it lives in Spain. In this way, he explains the importance of expanding the distribution of the species to avoid “risk” because “any external factor”, such as a virus, a mass poisoning or a lethal cause that affected the bearded vulture in the Pyrenees would lead to the virtual disappearance of the species “throughout Europe”.

The ideal is to have populations close enough so that they can have some genetic contact but far enough away so that an eventual episode drags the Spanish population down. With this idea, precisely, the project arose with which in 2010 2 specimens were released in Picos de Europa; one in 2012; another in 2014 and 2015 respectively; four more in 2016; three in 2017 and 7 in 2018. Thanks to this project, the protocol for rescuing embryos at risk and their breeding by natural imprint in human isolation has been consolidated. With these 7 there are now 21 individuals bred and released in Picos de Europa. More than 6000 kg of food have also been provided to the Supplementary Feeding Point and 20 sorties have been made by the anti-venom dog patrol.