The largest bird in the Alps, the bearded vulture was exterminated in the 19th century and is a vulnerable species today.
Starting in 1986, bearded vultures were reintroduced in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France; now there are roughly 200 in the Alps, and the population is doing well. In Switzerland, there are about a dozen breeding pairs.
It goes by other misnomers like the horse vulture, chamois vulture, or, most commonly, lamb vulture – highlighting the myth that the bird was powerful enough to attack these animals.
“By the end of the 19th century it was deliberately decimated and finally exterminated in Switzerland for competitive reasons, due to ignorance and because bounties were paid for shooting them,” according to the species profile by the Swiss Oithological Instituteexteal link.
In fact, the bird is not predatory. It feeds instead on the carrion and even the bones of dead chamois, ibex, and perhaps cattle or sheep that died while out to pasture. Raphaël Arlettazexteal link, head of conservation biology at the University of Be, is especially fond of bearded vultures.
“It’s fantastic to observe them because they are very curious – sometimes they fly five SWI swissinfo...
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