The “monk” Egyptian vulture and the Highschool of Iasmos

28.06.2013

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This year the Egyptian vultures that nest at the thracean Meteora at the Kompsatos valley were quite late. From the beginning of April we were out in the neighboring hillsides waiting for their arrival, but each our anxiety was growing as no feather could be seen in the horizon! Our anxiety was shared by the adoption team of 11 students from Iasmos Highschool that had decided to take a stand and assist us in our struggle to protect this endangered bird. The only thing missing was the birds!
The nest at the Τhracean Meteora can be easily characterized as the "monk's" nest of the Egyptian vulture because, apart from the commanding rocks that invoke the "religious" Meteora in Thessaly, the nest is situated deep inside the valley of Kompsatos river, an hour driving distance from the closest permanent settlement, the city of Iasmos. From 2009, when we first located the couple, it has managed to breed successfully only once. This year the location of the nest has been slightly altered as the couple has moved the nest, on the same rock, to a different spot, that makes any observation of the inside of the nest an almost impossible task, like a cave of a hermit! It seems that this couple is indeed modest!
The bird that appeared first was the male. It built the new nest and while waiting for the female it protected passionately its territory. The female was nowhere to be found...The adoption team anxiously was asking regarding Menelaos and Penelope, as it was decided, after extended discussions, to name the birds. As they were waiting as well for the female, the team organized a presentation for the species and its biology, its surrounding myths, the problems it is facing, as well as the actions of the LIFE programme to prevent the extinction of the Egyptian vulture in Greece and Bulgaria. They gave the presentation to students of Iasmos Lyceum.
Good news was finally received! The female had arrived! The team got ready and as quickly as possible started ascending in order to meet up close its couple. The road was long and difficult, nonetheless the spirit of the team was held high...Unfortunately though, the couple continued to stay detached, remaining out of view during the entire duration of our stay there. The team's binoculars aimed at the Griffon vultures that roosted on the rocks there and that this year nested again at the Thracean Meteora after a break of several years.
This bad luck didn't stop the team that decided to bring the Egyptian vulture down, in the streets of Iasmos. So, on the day of the open market the team created multicoloured placards with slogans like: "Asproparis (white paris) - Black future?", "Don' t put in their mouth poisoned baits", "Poison the Egyptian Vulture, Poison our Future", stickers and information boards and took to the streets. The goal was to inform society for the species. At the same time it was a good opportunity to do a poll on the knowledge and opinions of the people for the Egyptian vulture (the questionnaire can be found in Greek at the site: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/39PL3GT). At the end no one in the town was left that didn't welcome warmheartedly our Egyptian vultures to listen to their stories and answer their questions.
In a total of 70 completed questionnaires 51% could identify the species, while 57% knew that such birds live in their vicinity. Additionally 40% had heard something regarding the myth of the "white father" or else "akbub". Even more, 50% of the participants knew that the population of the species is quite small in Greece, a fact that they mostly linked with the use of poisoned baits, as this was the threat deemed serious by the most (60%), with second the threat posed by the cables of the electricity network (50%).
The team will meet again in September, if everything goes well, so as to say goodbye to Menelaos and Penelope and hopefully their young one (or young ones) before they depart for their long journey to the south.

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