Zoo Ostrava The Annual Report 2009

together with another bearded vulture of the same age bred at a conservation centre in the department
of Upper Savoy. In most cases, two young birds are put in nests, although only a single chick is reared in the
bearded vulture, where cainism is quite common, as the young birds feel less abandoned, motivate each other
and stay together some time even upon they leave the nest. The juveniles are fed, monitored and tracked on
such place, but in other aspects, they are left as they are. After some fourteen days, the young birds fix such
place as their own nest and imprint on the surrounding area as their new home. Once the birds leave the nest,
they still get additional feeding from humans for several months, but subsequently are able to find their own
food. Condamine first flied out of the nest on 25 June when she was 116 days old; the flight took 10 seconds
and the bird flied away upon having stayed 21 days in the park, getting adapted to its new habitat. It had to be
forced to fly out by interrupting the on-the-nest feeding regime; following six days of non-feeding period, the
bird flied off the nest to search for food. To conclude, the release technique above consists in taking
usually two different juveniles from their parental nests before they leave the nest, placing the
birds jointly on a temporary nest in the native range of the species.
The young cinereous vulture was transported into the territory of Verdon canyon and released into the
pre-release aviary together with another young vulture bred at Bochum Zoo. As with the bearded vultures,
the birds were fed and monitored, getting familiar with their new settings. As they were undergoing the
pre-release process, they imprinted on their new home. In the Verdon canyon region, there is a promising
population of the griffon vulture, as well as a new cinereous vulture stock, the latter now reinforced by the
Ostrava's young bird. However, all the birds have survived there only with support of conservationists who
provide feeding to the vultures on a permanent basis. On the other hand, this has worked well in terms of
socialisation of the newly released birds from the very start - the young ones can watch numerous freeranging
vultures fed at a close distance from the aviary even prior the release as while bearded vultures are
territorial birds in their nesting season, cinereous vulture lead semi-colonial and the griffon vultures even
colonial life. Both cinereous vultures were released from the aviary on 18 October 2009, i.e. after having spent
over a month there, getting familiar to each other and undergoing the pre-release period. In this case, the
release technique consists in taking usually multiple different juveniles from their parents only
after the young have left the nest, placing the birds jointly in a pre-release aviary and releasing
the birds from this aviary after an adaptation period.
Once the birds have flown out, they continue to be monitored. To make it possible, each bird is carefully
ringed and microchipped to provide for identification from close; in addition, specific flight or tail feathers
are bleached, which is very well visible from below when the bird is flying. Implanted transmitters work also
very well, as they allow for receiving signals from a distance of many kilometres, plus transmitters are now
ultralight and miniature devices posing no restraints on the bird.
In its consequences, this success of Ostrava Zoo in terms of breeding as well as management was an
extraordinary event for the country and entire cultural world, as it was a clear example of the fact that if
man stops preventing nature to exist normally and human faults from the past have been redressed, wildlife
and habitats recover locally and continue to be natural and cultural heritage for our children and future
generations. And may it be that our children's approach will be more friendly than that of their parents and
grandparents. Let us believe that zoological parks will be amongst the ones to take a lead.
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