“Τhe Tree of Life & the River of Communication” on Ioli’s and Pari’s side!

25.06.2013

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The visitors' centre of the National Park of Dadia-Lefkimi_Soufli National Park is yet again filled with young visitors. These visitors though have something different, something that makes you think that their presence is linked to a significant purpose!
Indeed, they are from the Environmental Team "The Tree of Life & the River of Communication" of Soufli's Highschool that came here in order to meet the pair of Egyptian vultures that nests in the rocks of Diavolorema. This is the pair that the Team of 40 students has adopted, giving the promise that "will do whatever is possible for its protection", as Andrianna Tzapounova, a member of the team, wrote to the letter she wrote (and which you can find in greek in the following webpage: http://blogs.sch.gr/panagiotopouloud/) regarding their meeting with the birds.
The first action that "ratified" the adoption could be no other than the naming of the couple! The Team chose the names Ioli and Paris for the two birds, and decided to offer its positive energy to the nest as well, naming it "the nest of love". A nest that is active since 2000, offering to the Egyptian vultures a safe haven for the six months that they will stay there and conditions that allow them to raise two chicks per year! Of course, it's quite unusual for both chicks to survive, a case that confirms the big hurdles that the protection efforts need to overcome. The news for this year is once again encouraging. The couple has managed to hatch once again to chicks.
The adoption Team of Soufli's Highschool has undertaken a difficult role: to assist, through their actions, in the protection of possibly the most productive nest of the species in Thrace.
So, when the day of Soufli's open market came and hundreds of people, from the wider area, flocked the streets, the Team took the streets to say to the town that the Egyptian vulture is here! The placards were held up high: "Save the Egyptian vulture - Inform the people around you", "Dead animals are its food - Poisoned animals are its doom", "The Egyptian vulture is here, Assist the efforts for its survival", "Take action". The Team didn't stop until no one in the town could claim that they didn't hear anything about the Egyptian Vulture!
But apart from the informative value of this action the Team posed to passers-by a series of questions, in order to produce an opinion poll regarding the species. The results of the poll, from a sample of 76 participants, indicate the difficulties, but also carry a message of hope! 57 per cent of the people asked didn't know the species. On the other hand the great majority (79%) believes that the Egyptian vultures lives in the forest of Dadia. Additionally the bigger part of the participants (62%) considers the species under danger of extinction, while the 76% recognizes that the Egyptian vulture is valuable to the region, both through the services it provides to the rest of the ecosystem and its intrinsic value. At the same time the participants in this informal poll denoted that protection efforts for this species must confront first and foremost the threats of illegal hunting and of poisoned baits, as those were considered the biggest threats with 62% and 33% respectively. Finally, most of the participants (51%) said that they could assist in the protection efforts by spreading the message that the Egyptian vulture is a harmless animal that needs our attention.
Stickers with the message: «Is world so small for me or am I too small for the world?" were shared to the participants of the poll.
Even though the summer is here, the adoption Team of Ioli and Paris remains alert in order to step in when the situation calls for it!

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