Rare vulture disappears from radar on maiden migration
Conservationists are facing a setback after an endangered white scavenger vulture named Ionas disappeared during his first migratory journey.
Named Ionas after he was born and tagged with a tracking device in Meteora in central Greece last June, the young – and inexperienced – male vulture set off on the annual migration to Africa in September. He was tracked to the East Attica port of Lavrio before heading off towards the Aegean, where instead of taking the safer passage overland via Turkey at Amorgos, Ionas headed south across the Mediterranean. His signal was lost south of Kasos.
“Even though there’s a slight hope that the transmitter malfunctioned, the most likely outcome is that Ionas suffered the same fate as a significant number of young white scavenger vultures that become exhausted as they try to cross the Mediterranean and drown,” the conservation society said.
The white scavenger vulture is Europe’s most endangered bird species, and its population is critically low, with only five breeding pairs known to be still alive in Greece, primarily in Thessaly and the Dadia Forest.
