Vulture

RIGA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A young black vulture born and bred at Riga Zoo has been sent this week to Bulgaria where it will be released into the wild as part of a reintroduction program, the zoo informed on Wednesday.

Ostrava, North Moravia, July 24 (CTK) - A young cinereous vulture that hatched in the Ostrava zoo in April has been transferred to Bulgaria this week to be released in the eastern part of the Stara Planina mountain range, zoo spokeswoman Sarka Novakova has told CTK.

The bird will be released in the wild together with other two young cinereous vultures coming from Latvia's Riga Zoo.

In 2008, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's official news agency, Wafa, reported that Israel (read: Mossad) had released poison-resistant rats to drive Arab residents of Jerusalem out of their homes. If you took the news seriously you might think of it as a remarkable scientific achievement to train rats so that they could distinguish between Muslim, Christian and Jewish residents of a city

A EUR 3 M project financed by the EU plans to restore the population of black vulture in Bulgaria.

The project entitled "Bright Future for Black Vulture in Bulgaria" will be implemented by NGOs from four countries, private bTV station informs.

One third of the pairs of Egyptian vultures left on the Balkan peninsula reside in Bulgaria.

For the first time in many years, there is some ground for optimism as the population of the Egyptian vulture in Bulgaria has slightly increased, private bTV stations reports.

Two Egyptian vultures, Boris and Jennie, can now be monitored live after being equipped with satellite trackers, the Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds (BSPB) has said.

Boris and Jennie, two adult vultures, are representatives of an animal species whose extinction rate is among the highest in Europe.

A hatchling was born into a family of Egyptian vultures living in Bulgaria this week, helping preserve a species whose numbers are rapidly declining across the region, a non-profit has said.

Bulgaria's capital Sofia has elected the griffon vulture to become its ugly animal mascot in a first-ever vote held by a city outside of the UK.

The vote comes as part of a campaign run by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.

A German Zoo has sent three griffon vultures to Bulgaria, in a push to reintroduce the birds to reintroduce them into one of their natural habitats.