Study on the Threats to Vultures (Aegypiinae) in Macedonia
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Macedonian Ecological Society Institute of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics 1000 Skopje, Macedonia Study on the Threats to Vultures (Aegypiinae) in Macedonia Compiled by Metodija Velevski With contributions of: Prof. Dr. Ljupčo Melovski, Todor Ivanovski, Dimitar Rolevski Bratislav Grubač and Tome Lisičanec The preparation of this study was supported by the grant of Frankfurt Zoological Society and the help of Black Vulture Conservation Foundation. Skopje, May 2003 CONTENTS Introduction .....................................................................................................................3 1. Killing ...........................................................................................................................3 2. Poisoning ......................................................................................................................8 3. Electrocution..............................................................................................................10 4. Egg and chicks theft ..................................................................................................13 5. Habitat loss.................................................................................................................14 5.1. Existing road network.................................................................................14 5.2. Road construction.......................................................................................15 5.3. Dams...........................................................................................................16 5.4. Aforestation ................................................................................................16 5.5. Forest fires ..................................................................................................17 6. Lack of suitable breeding sites .................................................................................18 7. Disturbance ................................................................................................................19 7.1. Military exercises .......................................................................................19 7.2. Alpine climbing ..........................................................................................19 7.3. Aircraft disturbance ....................................................................................20 7.4. Quarries ......................................................................................................20 7.5. Hunting and shooting .................................................................................20 7.6. War conflicts ..............................................................................................21 8. Food shortage.............................................................................................................21 9. Food competition .......................................................................................................22 10. Minimal population number ..................................................................................22 11. Low breeding potential ...........................................................................................23 References .......................................................................................................................25 2 INTRODUCTION The trend of vulture populations decline in Europe in the last century resulted with the narrowing of the distribution range. Among the last strongholds were vulture populationson the Balkan Peninsula. Vulture populations in Macedonia were not extinct, but survived on the level of stabile populations or below the critical minimum. It is obvious that the decline is existing trend in nowadays. The reason for the vulture populations decline is mainly anthropogenic influence and non-existence of active system for their protection. During our research we have identified several negative factors that influenced the vulture populations. These threats are more or less the same for other regions in Europe. Slow industrial and traffic infrastructure development as well as maintaining traditional farming practices to some extent and extensive tourism were factors that resulted with preservation of wildlife in general and vulture populations at some sites. According to the recent estimations there are about 40-48 pairs of Griffon Vulture, 60-85 pairs of Egyptian Vulture in Macedonia. The situation of Black and Bearded Vulture is far more critical and the existence of breeding pairs have not been confirmed recently. Factors that vultures faced and resulted with their number decline were especially intensive after the World War II. Most of them led to the total disappearance of vultures in some regions and significant number decline in other regions. In continuation we give overview of the identified threats as reasons for the decline with the known cases. Data on these cases were derived from literature sources and rarely by interviews with experts that could provide some data as well as local inhabitants (farmers, shepherds, hunters etc.). The threats were analyzed for each species separately and their importance was assessed. The assessment performed is based only on accessible data and thus can not provide complete coverage of the situation. However, the conclusions can be used as a suitable base for the preparation of conservation plans of vultures in Macedonia and will be helpful in the preparation of the National Action Plan of Recovery and Conservation of Vultures. 1. KILLING In the period during the World War I (1914-1918), than between the two world wars and after the World War Two, killing of large birds of prey was common practice. According to Dr. T. Petkovski (pers. comm.), a reward was paid to every hunter that would bring a leg of bird of prey - larger the leg - greater the reward. This high rate of killing is also officially documented - in 1953/1954, according to the Annual of the Republical Department for Statistics (1955), 452 "carcass-eating eagles" were killed (the Annual gives separately information of Falcons (232 killed), Hawks (690), Owls (119) and "carcass-eating eagles", without detailed information for eagles and vultures. It is to be assumed that larger portion of this number refers to eagles, as most of the birds (200) were killed in the region of Gevgelija, which is not a "hot-spot" for vultures. Second on the list is Berovo Region (89 birds) and third Skopje Region (74). There are no data for killing of Birds of Prey in the following volumes of the Statistical Annual). Sparse exact data for killing of vultures can mostly be found in specialized publications. Short overview for the killing of each species is given in Table 1 and Fig. 1 and 2. 3 Tab. 1 Overview of killed vultures in Macedonia Number of Species No. Date Locality Region Author birds killed 1 1924-1936 Struga region SW Macedonia 1 ad Matvejev 1955 2 23/04/1938 ? Macedonia 1 ad Ivanovski 2000 3 1939 Gevgelija S Macedonia 1 ad Ivanovski 2000 4 1950-1975 Crna Reka Gorge S Macedonia 2 ex Grubač 2002 atus b 5 1950-1975 Kozjak, Prilep C Macedonia 1 ex Grubač 2002 us bar 6 1950-1975 Treska Gorge ? 1 ex Grubač 2002 t e a 7 1950-1975 Korab Mt. SW Macedonia 1 ex Grubač 2002 Gyp 1 ex (prob. men. 8 ? Mariovo S Macedonia Trpkov 1987 in Grubac 2002) 9 1989 river Buturica, Mariovo S Macedonia 1 imm Grubač 1991 Total birds killed 10-11 1 July-September 1917 ? Macedonia 1 Gengler 1920 2 1927 Dolno Lisiče near Skopje N Macedonia 1 Karaman 1928 3 1924 - 1941 Struga region SW Macedonia 2 (ad & juv) Matvejev 1955 chus 4 30/01/1940 Kočani region E Macedonia 1 Ivanovski 2000 a n o 5 around 1953 near Radoviš E Macedonia 1 Grubač 1998 m 6 May 1977 Kriva Lakavica river E Macedonia 1 juv Grubač 1998 7 August 1978 Kožuf Mt S Macedonia 2 Grubač 1998 Aegypius 8 Aug.-Sept. 1988 Šar Planina Mt NW Macedonia 1 juv Grubač 1998 9 March 1982 Crna Reka gorge S Macedonia 1 female Grubač 1998 Total birds killed 11 1 1914-1918 and after Matka Gorge N Macedonia many Karaman 1928, 1949 2 1927 v. Dolno Lisice, Skopje N Macedonia 5 Karaman 1928 3 23/12/1954 v. Dolno Sonje, Skopje N Macedonia 1 Ivanovski 2000 4 1962 Trubarevo, Skopje N Macedonia 1 Trpkov 1987 fulvus 5 23/01/1973 Veles C Macedonia 1 Ivanovski 2000 6 21/02/1988 Negotino Region C Macedonia 1 Ivanovski 2000 Gyps 7 15/03/1993 Veles region C Macedonia 1 Ivanovski 2000 8 10/10/2001 Konce, Serta Mt. S Macedonia 1 Rolevski, pers. comm Total birds killed unknown, > 20 1 before 1928 Skopje region N Macedonia many Karaman 1928 2 04/07/1939 Skopje region N Macedonia 1 ad & 1 juv Ivanovski 2000 erus t 3 10/07/1939 Skopje region N Macedonia 1 ad Ivanovski 2000 nop c 4 12/03/1969 Matka N Macedonia 1 juv Ivanovski 2000 without exact 5 1970-1985 ? Macedonia Trpkov 1987 number on per 6 before 1989 ? S Macedonia 4 ex Grubač 1989 7 10/08/1996 Negotino region C Macedonia 1 ad Ivanovski 2000 Neophr Total birds killed unknown 4 Bearded Vulture Gypäetus barbatus Karaman (1928, 1949) states that Bearded vultures were killed in large numbers by the German soldiers during the World War I in the Matka canyon and many skins were exported for collections. Makatcsh (1950) reports that 1 adult female was killed near Valandovo, on 17.05.1916. According to Matvejev (1955) in the Natural History Museum in Struga one specimen of the Bearded vulture exist, probably killed in the wider region of Ohrid Lake (most likely Jablanica Mt, where the dot is placed, but also might be Galičica Mt.,