First description of movement and ranging behavior of the Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus) from Serbia using GPS satellite tracking

Abstract

Understanding the movement pattern and ranging behavior of the Griffon vulture population in Serbia is of great importance for prioritizing conservation action. In 2011, an immature vulture was the first bird to be equipped with a satellite transmitter in Serbia. Our study aims to define the vulture?s foraging areas, home ranges, core and basic areas, and to investigate movement patterns across different years and seasons by analyzing satellite telemetry data. We tracked the movements of the vulture for over three years and obtained satellite tracking data for 34 bird-months (1976 GPS fixes) between October 2011 and July 2014. We determined that the overall foraging area of the vulture across the entire study period was 11654.34 km2. The overall area used by the vulture was larger during spring and summer than during winter periods. Combined ranges across all years identified one basic area and its associated core area around the Uvac colony and nearby feeding site; we identified three core areas in its proximity. This study showed that areas of traditional stock-raising practices are important vulture foraging areas and that supplementary feeding sites have a vital role. Our maps can be used for future planning of vulture conservation measures.

New insight into spatial ecology of Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) on the Balkans provides opportunity for focusing conservation actions for a threatened social scavenger

“…Those researchers have used ringing and radio transmitters fitted to single birds; metal and colour ring recovery data and wing tagging have all proven that Griffon Vultures and especially the young individuals carry out long-distance migrations. More recently, GPS-based studies on the local territory use and movements of Griffon Vultures from some countries on the Balkans, similar to studies that have been conducted earlier on the Iberian Peninsula and elsewhere ( García-Ripollés et al 2011 , Bahat et al 2001 ), have also been published for Greece (Crete) ( Xirouchakis et al 2021 ), Serbia ( Hribsek et al 2021 ), Eastern Alps and Croatia ( Genero et al 2020 ) and Bulgaria ( Peshev et al 2018 , Stoynov et al 2018 ). However, there is still no comprehensive study and detailed analysis of the use of the entire territory, (cross)movements, spatial behaviour and sojourn patterns of the species from the Balkan Peninsula in a regional context.…”

Seasonal and age-specific dynamics of the Griffon Vulture’s home range and movements in the Eastern Rhodopes

“…We consider that as a result of the social and gregarious lifestyle of the species the exogenous birds which arrive in the area are foraging and roosting together with the local groups of vultures, hence using the same areas. Looking at a broader scale, we found considerable variations in the home range estimations and daily travelled distances among the different populations on the Balkans, in Italy, France, Spain and Israel (Bahat & Kaplan 1995, Xirouchakis & Andreou 2009, García-Ripolles et al 2011, Monsarrat et al 2013, Genero et al 2020, Hribsek et al 2021, Xirouchakis et al 2021). These differences could be a result of different tracking methods and intensity, analytical approach, age and season variations.…”

“…Vulture movement data is used to assess the effectiveness of protected areas, the risk of collision with human-made infrastructure, detect poisoning incidents and identify mortality hotspots and priority areas for conservation (Alarcon & Lambertucci 2018). Studies on the Griffon Vulture's movements were already conducted in Spain (García-Ripollés et al 2011), Israel (Bahat et al 2001, Crete (Xirouchakis et al 2021), on the Balkans (Peshev et al 2021), Bulgaria (Peshev et al 2018), Serbia (Hribsek et al 2021), Eastern Alps and Croatia (Genero et al 2020). However, the increasing Griffon Vulture population in the trans-border Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and Greece has not yet been studied.…”

abmAnimalMovement: An R package for simulating animal movement using an agent-based model

“…Unlike badgers and other terrestrially moving animals, vultures can move great distances with minimal obstruction [Figure 11]. Vultures can also move greater distances more rapidly, 95 resulting in a more variable and distribution of step lengths [96][97][98] [Figure 10].…”

“…Again similar to badgers we would expect seasonal shifts in the form of an increase and decrease in activity depending on the time of year. [95][96][97]101 We can broadly summarise the vulture ecology we want to parametrise as follows:…”