Update on tracking of Lappet-faced vultures

Movements of a juvenile Lappet-faced vulture during 5 May - 19 June 2022. (Yellow = 5-19 May, Blue = 20 May-3 June, Red = 4-20 June) ©ESO, IAR.

In May 2022, we fit GPS-GSM tracking devices to four nestling Lappet-faced vultures in the Hajar Mountains. Here and here are earlier blogs about that work. The tracking is part of a larger study that has been funded by the Disney Conservation Fund and the Anglo OmaniSociety. The tracking devices were provided by Hawk Watch International. The Environment Authority of Oman provided field support and the permits to do the work.

First off, the bad news… A couple of weeks after tagging, the signal from the tracking device suggested that one of the birds we had tagged was no longer moving on the nest. At that time it was too young to have fledged, so we visited the nest, and found that the nestling had died. A future blog (here) will provide details, but the short story is that we do not know why it died, though camera trap images show it was being fed by the parents, and there was no evidence that the tracking device played any part in the bird's death. Like I said... the long story will be posted in a later blog post, so come back later to read about it.

Now the (so far, very) good news… The three remaining nestling Lappet-faced vultures that were fitted with tracking devices all fledged successfully, and since then have dispersed ever farther from their nest sites, although the nest sites seems to occasionally draw them back. Below are maps of the three birds we have tracked during the period May – August. At the moment we refer to these birds by their tracking device ID number. It’s not very imaginative, and perhaps we’ll seek to name them.

Future blogs will update those data, so come back and see what has happened. You can of course subscribe to the blog and get notifications about blog updates. Also, please let you friends and networks know about the blog, and leave any comments you might have.