A Salbertrand a Day for the Bearded Vulture

On Saturday, September 20, over 50 people, including professionals, volunteers, enthusiasts, and photographers gathered in Salbertrand for "The Gypaetus Day".

The park rangers of the Alpi Cozie Parks responsible for the project, Giuseppe Roux Poignant, Silvia Alberti, and Alessandro Perron presented data on the observations in the first half of 2025, particularly with reference to territorial pairs and their unsuccessful reproductions.

2025 marks the thirtieth year of monitoring the gypaetus in our protected areas. In the first half of the year, 240 observations were recorded, and at least 31 different gypaeti were recognized. By the end of the year, the 461 observations of 2024 will surely be surpassed.

On this occasion, the foundations were laid for organizing the next IOD International Observation Day, the simultaneous census day on a European scale.

This is an annual monitoring event, now in its twentieth edition this year, organized by IBM, the international monitoring network for gypaeti.
The monitoring action takes place in October with a synchronized and coordinated survey covering large areas of the Alpine arch (since 2006), the Central Massif (since 2012), the eastern part of the French Pyrenees (since 2016), various regions of Spain (since 2017), and several selected sites in Bulgaria (since 2018).

The goal of this expanding network is to establish an EU-level population monitoring of gypaeti, where synchronized observations on a focal day allow for an approximate estimate of the population size and age class distribution.

An monitoring action of this magnitude, combined with the fact that birds are identified individually whenever possible, is unique and generates baseline information for survival analyses and demographic models essential for assessing the progress of reintroduction.

The number of participants in the IOD increases every year, thus the simultaneous observation day represents a major public event that helps raise awareness of the gypaetus as a symbolic species.

Last year, the day involved 7 countries with 789 stations, 1410 observers, and a total of 1103 gypaetus observations on the focal day. In the Alpi Cozie Parks, despite the uncertain weather, 35 stations were covered, with 62 observers involved and 9 different gypaeti intercepted: 1 juvenile, 4 immature, 2 sub-adults, and 2 adults.

The next event will be held on Saturday, October 11, during a weekend dedicated entirely to vultures!

On October 12, the Alpi Cozie Parks, thanks to the contribution of guide Laura Antiquario and in collaboration with LIPU Turin, will organize a day of awareness on the gypaetus and other vultures that soar over our mountains, which is part of the IVAD International Vulture Awareness Day, the international day for vulture awareness: Where does the vulture fly?

An opportunity to raise public awareness about the importance of vultures for maintaining healthy ecosystems and changing the often negative perception towards them, highlighting conservation efforts, and engaging communities.

Throughout the day, a Thematic Path will be set up at the headquarters of the Gran Bosco di Salbertrand Natural Park to discover curiosities, life, and threats of these great flyers.

A Kids' Space will also be available, with story readings at 10:00 AM and a Grand Treasure Hunt at 3:30 PM.