A blooming colony… 30 years later!

A very promising event is taking place in the Empesos area (Mountain Valtos), in Aitoloakarnania, Greece. An old-established colony of griffon vultures, which had been abandoned since the end of the 80s, is currently found to be not just active but also very dynamic.

Eight to nine nests have been registered this year in the area, through the systematic monitoring carried out by the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS) in the framework of the LIFE-IP 4 NATURA project.

In fact, one of this year’s breeding birds in the Empesos area is “Yiannis”, the only griffon vulture survivor from last year’s catastrophic poisoning incident in Kleisoura area. Yiannis had been banded with a satellite transmitter and a ring by the Management Body of Messolonghi lagoon – Akarnanika Mountains before its release.

This news demonstrates in a most profound way that raptors’ long-established colonies – territories must be considered as potentially active and that we must manage them as such.