He was hatched in the Belgrade’s Zoo garden and we wanted to give him the chance to be free. It was planned to be one of the first Griffon Vultures released on Stara Planina in 2016, in the program of returning the Vultures on this mountain. That is why he got name Piroćanac. The program was not then supported by the state administration, and Piroćanac remained in the zoo for two years. At the beginning of June 2018, during the organization of the program of satellite tracking and monitoring, the transfer of Piroćanac to Uvac was stopped due to unreasonable administrative requirements. With the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the bird got the necessary documents and he was transferred to Uvac with a big delay in the middle of August. We equipped him with a satellite transmitter and released on the Uvac, along with two other Zlatar and Marija mts, on the 1.9.2018. ( GPS tracking … » ), where are the best conditions for him to integrate with other Vultures. There was no point in postponing the release, because the other two birds from the cages were ready, so the Piroccanac would remain alone in the cage. There was also a winter period coming, when Vultures are under pressure to survive. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to adjust and integrate with the other two birds in cage. By satellite tracking and video surveillance on the feed place, we saw that he did not integrate into a flock of Vultures and we wanted to get him back to the cage. The Rangers of the Uvac Reserve were doing their best, but the Pirocanac was elusive. At one point he went to Mileševka and Pašter, which gave us hope that he would succeed. The Vultures from Uvac often visit because there are plenty of cattle and potential food.

When the Rangers found him, he was exhausted, and according to the procedure, he was immediately taken by the veterinarian, who found that the bird was good, that he needed ti eat, and that he would recover quickly, so he was returned to the cage. The bird was not hospitalized at that time and in such a bad condition he was returned to the cage of the Uvac Reserve. Unfortunately, this was obviously not a good estimate. The Piroćanac died in the Center at Uvac, although he accepted some food.

This is the third case that a Vultures are dead in this way. We hope that this bad experience will help to resolve the issue of veterinarians and hospitalization of endangered bird species, so that these unnecessary losses will not occur again.

Zlatar and Maria mts behave well. They are moving and visiting the territory. They were recorded several times in the feeding place by satellite tracking, as well as video surveillance. Satellite tracking he discovered the new potential site for nesting Vultures that we will soon visit. We wish them luck in the coming winter period.

For several days, our Griffon Vulture “Piroćanac” is located on Pešter. He went to Mileševka, crossed the top of Jadovnik (1740 meters), the mountain of Giljev and settle down on Pešter. Since the vultures are social birds and he was never in that area, he probably followed other vultures and is not alone. There are plenty of domestic animals in this area, so we hope that there is enough food.

Piroćanac, 05.10.2018.

“Zlatar” and “Marija mts” generally moving around feeding place Rastoke at Uvac, where they spend the most time. However, last night Zlatar stayed in the “Pavlovića brod”, while “Marija mts” spent the night near the viewpoint “Molitva”.

Zlatar i Marija mts, 05.10.2018.

It has been exactly a month since we have released three Griffon Vultures – Piroćanac, Zlatar and Marija mts – to the Special Nature Reserve “Uvac”, with satellite transmitters in the monitoring program. The first month it is the most critical period, because the vultures go into the open space. This is especially true for the Piroćanac, who hatched in the BeoZoo garden in 2016., and so far he has not even felt the freedom. The other two vultures are from the nature, but they also spent a longer period of time in the shelter. We have followed them on a daily basis and we are very pleased with their behavior for now.

In the GALLERY you can see the retrospective of the first month of satellite tracking, logs, photos from video surveillance “Rastoke”:

Kretanje "Zlatara" 14.07-14.10.2020. / "Zlatar's" movement 14.07-14.10.2020.

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– PIROĆANAC was a bit confused at the beginning, less flying and mostly staying on “Pavlovića brod” and near the houses. We did not record that he appeared at the “Rastoke” the restaurant for the vultures (feeding place) at Uvac, but he most likely found food somewhere else. It happens that local people throw away the remains of domestic animals for the vultures. On several occasions the rangers went to see Piroćanac, even carried food for him. Fortunately, recently Piroćanac began to fly well, he visited Uvac, Zlatar and Lake Radoinja where he spent the night. He also spent the night in the Mileševka colony. The peak of Jadovnik (1740 m above sea level) was also crossed a few days ago, and the last day of September he is on mount Giljevi. We hope that Piroćac will soon come to the restourant “Rastoke”, because it is the primary source of food during the winter.

– ZLATAR has been quite good since the beginning. His presence was recorded at the “Rastoke” several times, by satellite tracking, but also with video surveillance camera. Zlatar was also with Marija mts very often. They spent a lot of time together in the cage of the shelter at Uvac before releasing them. So, once again we can see how important is the adjustment period and that some time vultures should spent together in a cage to meet each other and establish social relationships.

– MARIA MTS was the best since the release, according to the satellite tracking log. She was the first one who was recorded on the feeding place on several occasions. The first one visited Zlatarsko jezero, where she hatched in 2017. To our great satisfaction and the other two vultures now behave like her!

The conclusion of the first month of satellite monitoring is that everything goes well. Since they are young birds, there is a possibility that some of them can go away from Uvac, but maybe they will decide to spend more time on the same place. Whatever happens next – we continue to monitor the movement of our heroes…

If you are interested in tracking live data, you can use the following links:

A Griffon Vulture who has a yellow-blue marker “29” on the right wing, was hatched this year in Kladnica in Uvac. He was marked on the nest on the 03.06.2018. He was recorded on the 16.08.2018. by a video surveillance camera at the Rastoke place at Uvac.
He was, also recorded on the 14.09.2018. on the rock at the SRP “Klisura rijeke Trešnjice” near the feeding place, showing that there is a clear connection between these two colonies. We intend to begin marking vultures on Trešnjica in order to follow the individuals from this colony.

Marking Griffon Vulture number “29” in Kladnica, 3.6.2018.

Video surveillance video at the Rastoke plant on Uvac, 16.08.2018.

The wall opposite the feeding place in Trešnjica, 14.09.2018.

International Vultures Awareness Day- September 1, 2018.

Once again The Nature Reserve “Uvac” was the place and the host of celebrating “International Vulture Awareness Day” – September 1, 2018. The Ministry of Environmental Protection, Government of Serbia, municipality Nova Varoš and Zlatar Touristic Organization supported this event. This year special event of the Day of the Vultures was releasing of three Griffon Vultures tagged with satellite transmitters. They were part of the project “Satellite tracking of Griffon Vultures”, supported and co-financed by The Ministry of Environmental Protection, Government of Serbia. Partners on this project were the Institute for the Biological Research “Siniša Stanković” University of Belgrade, Belgrade ZOO and Telekom Serbia, which donates satellite transmitter. One of the released birds was Piroćanac, Griffon Vulture which was born in the Belgrade ZOO and was released in the wild carrying one of the transmitters. The other two birds from nature – Zlatar and Marija, were found the exhausted, but were successfully rehabilitated at the Bird Center.

The crowded guests were welcomed by the host Uvac Nature Reserve, and speech held by the director of the Reserve Uvac, Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade director’s assistant, director of the Belgrade Zoo and director of Birds of Prey Protection Foundation.

Among the guests who came to support this event were colleagues from Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria, representatives of protected areas – “Krka National Park” from Croatia and Special nature Reserve “Tresnjica”.
As we said, the central ceremony was releasing of three griffon vultures tagged with satellite transmitters. All three birds flew away perfectly!

That day was also had a chance to meet with colleagues from Croatia, Greece, and Bulgaria to present and share their ideas, experience and successful practices in vultures conservation. To make joined efforts to make a safer and better future for vultures all over the Balkan, and to find new ways of better and closer collaboration.

All countries contributed with ideas:
• Better and stronger collaboration between all.
• Building a vulture reserve network and they are ready to take part in the project.
• Better collaboration with protected areas where vultures are, with ideas for making posters, leaflets with all national parks and protected areas connected.
• Development of safe ecotourism.
• and most importantly Network of the feeding sites for vultures all over Balkan Peninsula.

The suggestion of our Greek colleagues was to meet once again this year in order to make the proposed ideas concrete and find the solutions that can be applied in each of the countries participating in this cooperation, or in the protected areas where the vultures live.

The light motive of the meeting was #VulturesAboveBorders#
#VulturesAboveBorders#InternationalVultureAwarenessDay#UvacNatureReserve#Griffonvultures#

Griffon vulture “Marija Mts” which we on Saturday 1.9.2018. released at SRC “Uvac” and has a yellow-blue wing marker “06” appeared at the Rastoke feeding station on Uvac today. This is one of the vulture that is in the satellite tracking program and is equipped with a transmitter serial number: 182237.

Log with satellite tracking Vulture 182337, for the day 5.9.2018. years:

Photos from the camera, which is located at the Rastoke feeding center on Uvac:

The Center for Rehabilitation of vultures:

On the 1.9.2018. years the three Griffon Vultures were released with satellite transmitters into SRP “Uvac”. We thank all who helped the action, as well as those who were with us.
Here are the first results:

Kretanje "Zlatara" 14.07-14.10.2020. / "Zlatar's" movement 14.07-14.10.2020.

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Today, we have successfully released three Griffon vultures with satellite transmitters in SRP “Uvac”. In the photo you can see where they spent first night.

The first Team of the Foundation is in the field. We’ve set up three satellite transmitters on the Vulutres. We are waiting for results soon.

Today, all three satellite transmitters “OrniTrack-50 – GPS-GSM tracker” have been tested. We are planning to place them on our three Griffon Vultures, in order to keep track of their movement in the following period.
Transmitters work great!

Testing was done on the roof of the Institute for Biological Research “Siniša Stankovic”.

Even a minimal movement on the roof of the Institute are recorded well!