Status of the Vultures and Conservation Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina
At the end of the 19th century Bosnia and Herzegovina (apart from Greece and Spain), was the only country in Europe where four species of European vultures were recorded.
The Black Vulture stopped nesting in Bosnia and Herzegovina at the beginning of the 20th century. The last pair of the Bearded Vulture recorded in the nesting period was in the late 80's of the last century. The last nesting population of the Griffon Vulture in Herzegovina (Blagaj, Stolac, Popovo field) was extinct because of poisoning and war stress in 1990's.
Only a few pairs of the Egyptian Vulture nested in Herzegovina at the end of the last century. Although there are oral records of the Egyptian vulture still nesting in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to date there are no scientific records of this.
In 2005 Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the BVAP. Since 2007 a small number activities started with the aim to recover local Griffon vulture populations. One of these activities is the start of monitoring of vultures and other predatory birds to confirm their actual status in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over the last three years there was one scientific confirmation of the Griffon Vulture on the mountain Čvrsnica made in 2007.
The main threat for vultures is degradation and disappearance of potential nesting habitats, illegal hunting and killing, poisoning, lack of food because of reduced number of cattle and lack of nomadic livestock farming, as well as death caused by collision with transmission or wind power towers.