The GREFA Association is carrying out a project to recover black vulture populations in northern Spain.

The GREFA Association has launched the project “Recovery of extinct populations of black vulture (Aegypius monachus) in the north of the peninsula” with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment.

The black vulture suffered a huge decline in the mid-20th century due to venom, direct persecution and habitat loss. Although these threats have now been attenuated, the philopatric condition of the black vulture and its tendency to aggregate in large colonies means that the recolonization of the territories where it became extinct and that are far from the current colonies is a non-existent process, which is why it is necessary to promote projects for the reintroduction of this species.

Since 1992 GREFA has been working for the conservation of the black vulture. In that same year, the “Monachus” project began, to develop studies of the dispersive and behavioral patterns of this species. Since 2007 it has been developing the project “Reintroduction of the black vulture in the Pyrenees”, which has allowed the recovery of a colony made up of 11 pairs and about 45 specimens.

With this new project, a program is proposed in the Sierra de la Demanda (Burgos), where the species has been extinct since the 60s, with the aim of recovering black vulture populations in areas where it became extinct, increasing the flow of intercolonial movements and promoting communication between the Iberian and French populations.