site.btaSurvivor Named Chance: Endangered Vulture Flies Free After Near-Death Rescue

An Egyptian vulture that survived poisoning was released back into the wild near the village of Chobanka in the southeastern Momchilgrad area. The male bird, symbolically named Chance, spent over a month at the Wildlife Rescue Centre in Stara Zagora after he and his female partner were found in critical condition by the anti-poison team from the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds (BSPB) at the beginning of April.

An investigation into the case is ongoing.

The anti-poison team were alerted when the female’s tracker stopped registering movement, BSPB said.

“The dog found the vulture, immediately alerted us, and when we arrived, we saw that it was in agony and on the brink of death, but its beak was still slightly opening,” Nikolai Terziev of the dog-lead anti-poison team said. He said that was is the first case since the formation of the anti-poison team where they've managed to save a bird. “The poisons, as you may know, are extremely dangerous and act very quickly — animals die within minutes. The other bird wasn’t so lucky, but the one we’ll be releasing later was, and again, thanks to the dog, the job was done excellently,” he said.

Chance and his partner were found by the dog Buda just about a hundred meters from the poison bait. The pair had only formed a year earlier and hadn’t yet had a chance to breed. After successful treatment, the male bird is now getting a second chance.

“Chance is now equipped with a GPS transmitter, which will allow us to track him in the wild and see how he adapts again to life in nature and where he moves. God forbid we register more such incidents. We hope he’ll have better luck than he has had so far,” Volen Arkumarev of BSPB said.

He added that the area where Chance was released is one of the most important regions for the conservation of the Egyptian vulture. There are only 35 pairs of this globally endangered species left in all of Bulgaria. “Thirty of them are here in the Eastern Rhodopes, so it’s the responsibility of the local people to protect and value this species so we can preserve it for future generations,” Arkumarev said.

Just a day later, another six Egyptian vultures that have been donated by various zoos or have been rescued, will be tagged with GPS transmitters before being released into the wild in the municipality of Krumovgrad.