HawkTalk Issue 92 Winter 2022

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HAWKTALK WINTER 2022 ISSUE 92

A Black Hole of Knowledge; Egyptian Vulture Migration in Central Asia Migration is one of the most dangerous times for birds, and populations of many migratory species are in rapid decline. A big challenge with conserving migratory species is that they often encounter different threats in the different areas over which they migrate. The Egyptian Vulture is the only true migrant among the Old World vultures; there are two distinct populations of this species, one across Africa, the Middle East and Europe and the other in central and south Asia.

We introduced this new project back in our last HawkTalk and are excited to share updates on the projects progress. Egyptian Vultures in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are relatively well-studied, but very little is known about the movement patterns of Egyptian Vultures that migrate in central Asia. Our project, in collaboration with researchers Dr Robert ( John) Burnside, Vladimir Dobrev (Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds), Anna Ten and Valentin Soldatov (Institute of Zoology, Uzbekistan), aims to address this critical gap in knowledge. This research will help us understand the threats Egyptian Vultures face and contribute to conserving this Endangered species. Fieldwork began in August 2021, when three birds were fitted with GPS satellite tags, to identify the routes they take during migration and where they spend the winter. The field team travelled to already identified breeding grounds in the Kyzylkum Desert, Uzbekistan where they fitted tags to three almost-ready-to-fledge young birds, while still in their nests.

In our Spring issue, we shared the fascinating and unexpected initial results from the first few months of the first three birds that were tagged. Migratory Egyptian Vultures usually remain in their wintering ground during their first spring, only returning to the breeding grounds at the age of two or more. Since the last update in March, Arys has surprisingly migrated north back into Uzbekistan in the Tian Shan mountains between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Timur and Anya both remained in their wintering locations as expected in the Rajasthan desert crossing the border between India and Pakistan and in Yemen respectively.

From Left to right: Dobromir Dobrev, Vladimir Dobrev, Anna Ten and Valentine Soldatov