BEARDED VULTURE POPULATION AND HABITAT VIABILITY ...

Population and Habitat Viability Assessment: Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)
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reporting rate of 13.5% within those grid-cells in which it was sighted (Brown 1997a). The
highest reporting rates were in grid-cells along the eastern and southern escarpments of the
Drakensberg and in the highest reaches of the Maloti Mountains (Brown 1997a). The reporting
rate was slightly higher in winter months and this has been attributed to more birds using
vulture restaurants and so being more visible to observers (Brown 1997a). There were 15
grid-cells in which the reporting rate was less than 2% and possibly the Bearded Vulture can
be regarded as a vagrant in these grid-cells. Note that 92-15 = 77 which is within the range of
72 (breeding) and 79 (occurrence) predicted from data collected a decade earlier (Brown
1992). This probably indicates that the species range, as determined about a decade apart,
using different methods, had not changed significantly.
Figure 3: Distribution map taken from The Eskom Red Data Book of Birds (Barnes 2000).
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