From Addis Ababa to Afar and Amhara: a story about the vultures, people and Abissinian wilderness

01.02.2013

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A two weeks training seminar about the study and conservation of one of the most endangered birds in the world - the Egyptian vulture - was held by our Project team in Ethiopia, in early  January 2013. The event was attended by representatives of conservation organizations and authorities of Ethopia, Chad, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia. The seminar was organized by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds - BSPB (BirdLife partner in Bulgaria) with the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS). It consisted of theoretical and practical training and was a key step in building capacity to work with the specie in these countries.
Two days of lectures in Addis Ababa aimed to demonstrate to the participants the status, ecology and threats to the specie; methods for its study and how to recognize different ages. The current projects of the BSPB were presented along with the research and conservation of the Egyptian Vulture.  The seminar, entitled  "Capacity Building to Support the Conservation of Migratory Egyptian Vultures (Neophron percnopterus) from the Western Palearctic on their Wintering Grounds in Ethiopia, Sudan and Chad" was funded by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the LIFE+ project "The Return of the Neophron" (LIFE10 NAT/BG/000152) which is funded by the European Commission and the "A. G. Leventis. Special attention was paid to the opportunities that were created for cooperation with partners from African countries for conservation of the specie in its migratory route and wintering areas.
After the theoretical part of the workshop, we headed to the East toward the Afar. The area is recognized for keeping the largest known concentration of wintering Egyptian vultures in East Africa, thus providing a great opportunity for practical training on the census of this specie. The training also allowed the team to collect  valuable data about the number of wintering in Afar Egyptian vultures this year: a total of 1,077 birds we registered. This is the third censuscarried by BSPB with EWNHS, and the vultures registered  decreased by about 300 birds when compared with the  previous two censuses conducted in 2009 and 2010.
From the savannas and semi-deserts of the Afar we went to the area of Amhara in high plateaus of the Dill mountain to search for nesting Egyptian vultures. Our heads were literally dizzy because of the luck that we had in  finding a pair of Egyptian vultures at 3,500 meters above sea level! We finished the training in the grand canyon of Debre Libanos where workshop participants had the opportunity to be trained to identify active nests and pairs of Egyptian Vultures. In just one day we found two active nests of Egyptian Vultures.  We also saw Rueppell’s griffon, Lappet-face vulture, Verreaux’s eagles and other raptors.
Of course, like any expedition that had its "juicy" stories. Thus we will never forget how a Black kite snatched the lunch of the delegate from Sudan - literally under his nose, and face-to-face meeting in the bushes with an irate male gelada baboon ... But no matter how impressive nature of Ethiopia, with its savannas, semi-deserts, rivers, mountains and amazing flora and fauna, perhaps the most unique thing are people. The country is poor, but the grins can hardly see elsewhere ...
The seminar was an important "bridge" not only between the Balkans and Africa but also between African countries. We hope to create an environmental network  that will continue to grow stronger in time.

For more information:
Dr. Stoyan Nikolov
Project Manager
email: stoyan.nikolov @ bspb.org

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