We’ll celebrate the International Vulture Awareness Day with events in Haskovo, Madzharovo and Ruse
01.09.2016- Home
- Useful information
- We’ll celebrate the International Vulture Awareness Day with events in Haskovo, Madzharovo and Ruse
Every first Saturday of September is dedicated to one of the most rapidly disappearing birds on the planet - vultures. If the main threats are not identified and resolved quickly and efficiently vultures in Europe and Africa could disappear within our lifetime.
On 3th of September - The International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD), the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds announces free entrance at the Nature Conservation Center "Eastern Rhodopes", near Madzarovo.
The IVAD will be also celebrated on 9th of September (Friday), in Haskovo, where BSPB will organize “Festival of the birds”. The event will be held on “Svoboda” square, as part of the program, dedicated to the “Days of Haskovo”. There will be art workshop for the kids, where they can create birds, tortoises and snakes; they can paint their faces as vultures, and also take pictures as Egyptian vultures, Griffon vultures or Black vultures. An exhibition with the best pictures of the photo competition “The Egyptian Vultures Odyssey” will be shown to the visitors for the first time.
At the Regional Administration Hall – Haskovo, you will be able to enjoy the movie "Fly away" – a 40-minute production of BSPB and Mono Collective dedicated to wild birds in Bulgaria.
You’re also welcome to see a concert of Miryan Kostadinov, one of the participants in the X Factor TV show. The concert will be held on “Svoboda” square.
IVAD will also be celebrated in Ruse on 16th of September, at the Ruse Regional Museum of History. There will be organized six workshops for children for making masks of Egyptian vulture, models of snake, hamster, snail, tortoise, and hedgehog. Children can enjoy a piece, dedicated to the Egyptian vulture and a short film; also, the visitors can see a model of nest of Egyptian vulture with a figure of a young bird in real size.
Not so popular among the modern society, these majestic and ancient birds for thousands of years are considered to be sacred. The ecological role that vultures have in nature, provides an indispensable favor for the rest of the living world - they stop the spread of contagious diseases in animals and humans, thus becoming a carrier of life - not death. There are scientific studies showing that vultures, through its activities, provide to the public environmental services worth over 100 million euro annually.
Four species of vultures were breeding in Bulgaria in the past – Bearded vulture, Black vulture, Griffon vulture, and Egyptian vulture. Today, only the Griffon vulture and Egyptian vulture can be seen in our territory. Preservation of Griffon vulture is one of the most successful activities of the BSPB. Data from the monitoring, carried out already for the 29th consecutive year, show that in the late 80s breeding pairs were only 13, while in recent years have seen a gradual increase in the population of reporting in the current year 75 pairs.
For the last 30 years, the population of Egyptian vulture in Bulgaria declined over 80%. The main threats about these birds are the illegal use of poisons, electrocution caused by unsecured power lines, destruction of habitats, disturbance, and poaching. BSPB works on the conservation of this emblematic species since its establishment and over the past three years the negative trend in the population in Bulgaria is discontinued.
The initiatives dedicated to The International Vulture Awareness Day are organized in cooperation with the municipality of Haskovo and the Regional History Museum - Ruse under the BSPB LIFE+ project "The Return of the Neophron", in partnership with the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS), WWF Greece and the RSPB; and under the LIFE+ project " Conservation of Black and Griffon vultures in the Rhodope mountains” developed by Rewilding Europe, in partnership with the “Rewilding Rhodopes” Foundation , Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, WWF Greece, Vultures Conservation Foundation and Hellenic Ornithological Society.