A Bearded Vulture Chick after 20 Years

The first bearded vulture chick to hatch at Prague Zoo since 2006. Still covered in down, it bears a passing resemblance to the adult. Photo: Antonín Vaidl, Prague Zoo

Antonín Vaidl, Prague Zoo’s curator of birds, said: “Upon hatching, our keepers cared for the young bearded vulture for the first week. This allowed it to gain strength, thus increasing its chances of survival. It also helped the inexperienced pair successfully accept the chick. Both parents reacted instinctively and well, and are now raising it naturally on their own.”

The chick hatched on 1 March and weighed 133 grams. After less than a month, it weighs nearly ten times as much, 1.25 kilograms. It mainly feeds on meat from rats, rabbits, as well as large game.

Antonín Vaidl went on to add: “We are really pleased by the parents’ activity. The twenty-year hiatus in breeding was mainly due to the original pair being too old. We spent many years trying to form a new pair that would be compatible, not just genetically and in terms of age, but also in temperament. Bearded vultures are intelligent raptors and form permanent pairs, usually for life. It seems our efforts have paid off.”

The chick’s parents are 19 years old and come from a Corsican line of bearded vultures that is rarely bred. Prague Zoo acquired them from an Austrian breeding station in Haringsee and has been collaborating with it since 1990. The partnership mainly concerns the exchange of birds suitable for breeding, as well as the transfer of birds for reintroduction. Working with our Austrian colleagues, we have been able to release bearded vultures into the wild. Five were hatched directly at Prague Zoo and another six birds came from other institutions—such as Liberec Zoo, Ostrava Zoo and Hanover Zoo. The Prague bearded vulture pair, and later the male alone, provided foster care for these birds.

Even after being returned to its parents, the chick was monitored for the first few days, primarily through weighing and supplementary feeding. The breeding pair has now fully taken over care of the chick. Photo: Antonín Vaidl, Prague Zoo

Vultures are one of Prague Zoo’s flagship groups. Besides the critically endangered hooded vulture, which the zoo successfully breeds, it focuses on the cinereous vulture and, above all, the Egyptian vulture, for which it also runs the EAZA Ex situ Programme (EEP). The zoo reintroduces the latter two species, as well as bearded vultures, into the wild. In total, including foster-reared individuals, Prague Zoo has helped 26 raptors return to the wild.

Bearded vultures inhabit the mountainous regions of northern and eastern Africa, as well as areas stretching from Central Europe all the way to the Caucasus, China and Mongolia. Apart from their appearance, they are renowned for their remarkable dietary adaptation to feeding on seemingly inedible carrion remains. They have specialised in digesting bones and connective tissues. They usually drop large bones from a height onto rocks to break them open and then gorge on the marrow, followed by the splintered bones.

At present, the parents are raising the young in the quiet of the off-show facilities; nevertheless, Prague Zoo’s visitors can still see bearded vultures. Another pair, six years old and yet to breed, inhabits an exhibition aviary beneath the rock formation separating the enclosures for Barbary sheep and ibex.

A portrait of one of the parents. The bearded vulture is an unmistakable raptor thanks to its black “beard” and red irises. Its plumage is predominantly grey-black above and white to cream-coloured below. The head and neck are densely feathered, with yellowish plumage. A black stripe runs around the eyes, merging into the aforementioned beard. Photo: Antonín Vaidl, Prague Zoo