In the 25 years of life of the reintroduction project of Bearded vultures in the Alps, and thanks to the effort of countless people, a healthy population of birds has set up, outnumbering the 150 individuals with 19 confirmed breeding pairs in 2010 (18 with clutch), out of which more than half (10 pairs) could successfully raise a chick until fledging.

In addition to these promising results in the wild, this year a total of 10 birds have been released in the Alps in 4 different sites, Argentera, in the Parco Naturale delle Alpi Marittime (Italy); Chatillon en Diois, in the Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors (France); Kals, in the Nationalpark Hohe Tauern (Austria); and Calfeisen in the Swiss Alps (Switzerland). Nowadays, the population growth and productivity show a positive trend, which strengthen the optimism among the countries involved in the project; however, the increase in mortality (2 known cases this year) due to the arise of threads might hinder, in the close future, the realization of this dream.

Therefore, the return of this emblematic species is still far from being complete, and requires the commitment and collaboration of all of us.

This and more information about the situation of the Bearded vultures in the Alps can be found in the IBM's Annual Report 2010