BEARDED VULTURE POPULATION AND HABITAT VIABILITY ...

Population and Habitat Viability Assessment: Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus)
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1. Summary
This Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) Population and Habitat Viability Assessment
(PHVA) Briefing Document serves to provide all participants, attending the PHVA from the 6th
to the 10th of March 2006, with background information on the species and related current
conservation activities in South Africa. Background information on the PHVA theory and the
process that will be followed are also provided.
The goals of the workshop are to determine conservation priorities for the Bearded Vulture
(Gypaetus barbatus) and develop a coordinated, collaborative, effective conservation plan for
the species and its habitat in South Africa.
The PHVA process uses data on population status and trends, distribution, genetics, health
status, biology, threats and the ecology of the species to input into computer-based population
models (VORTEX) which test different management scenarios and forecast current and future
risk of population decline and/or extinction.
The outcomes of this workshop will include a comprehensive assimilation of the current data
available on Bearded Vultures in South Africa, a peer-reviewed conservation strategy for the
species and its habitat and a number of realistic, achievable conservation actions and
recommendations for improving the current status of Bearded Vulture in South Africa.
2. Introduction
Based on the Bearded Vulture’s small and declining population size, restricted range, range
contraction, and susceptibility to several threats in Lesotho and South Africa, it is regionally
classified as Endangered (Barnes 2000). The PHVA will be held to draft a national action plan
for the species’ conservation and deterministic and stochastic forces will be explored to
determine the species vulnerability to extinction.
There are two isolated populations of Bearded Vultures, one in Ethiopia (ca. 4000 pairs) and
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (ca. 50 pairs), another in southern Africa (< 200 pairs). The
study population is taken as the entire South African population; however a separate North
Africa model may be prepared.
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