Today it took off its first flight. It is Champagne, the small bearded vulture coming from the nest located in the Rhêmes Valley, on the border of the Gran Paradiso National Park. The park rangers and the Valle d'Aosta Forestry Corps sighted him.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Today stood out his first flight. It is Champagne, the small bearded vulture coming from the nest located in Rhêmes Valley, on the edge of Gran Paradiso National Park. The park rangers and the Valle d'Aosta Forestry Corps sighted him.
Ready to leave the Valsavarenche nest too Iris, the other bearded vulture born in April of this year. The names were assigned by the school children of the two valleys and their birth represents the first step of the international re-introduction project of this very rare species that is slowly repopulating the Western Alps.
The birth of the two “chicken"- this is the name of the little ones - was constantly monitored in these two months:
“Champagne's parents last year had attempted to play, but without success - explains Valter Borney, inspector of the Forestry Corps of the Aosta Valley - This year instead reproduction was successful. We are very excited about this event, which brought the bearded vulture back to the Rhêmes Valley by a mysterious and happy coincidence, where a century ago, in 1913, the last specimen of the Alps had been shot down».
«Iris - adds the inspector of the park rangers Stefano Cerise - is the son of the couple who in the spring of 2011 in Valsavarenche had given birth to Siel, the little one who did not survive. The greater maturity of the couple and the ways in which he built the nest have allowed a better breeding of Iris and her survival. Iris is expected to take off in the next few days. For the monitoring of the bearded vultures, particularly advanced technological means are used, together with the traditional tools in use, in order to ensure adequate protection for what can be defined as real treasures of biodiversity ".
Parent in the nest - Photo: "Gran Paradiso National Park Surveillance Corps"
Obviously, the sex of the two young bearded vultures is not yet known. They will remain in their parents' territory for a few months and will continue to be supervised by the staff of the Gran Paradiso National Park Authority and the Valle d'Aosta Forestry Corps.
All the data collected will be transmitted to the International Bearded Vulture Monitoring program at the Flora, fauna, hunting and fishing structure of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Valle d'Aosta Region.