The Rewilding Apennines team have begun operating a supplementary feeding station for griffon vultures in the Monte Velino Nature Reserve. By ensuring a safe supply of food for the birds, the station will support the recovery of the species, and is a step towards realising a landscape where vultures are sustained entirely by the carcasses of wild animals.

“The Circle of Life in the Rhodope Mountains”, a 12-minute documentary by Emmanuel Rondeau, tells the hopeful story of rewilding in the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria. At the beginning of November, a well-attended premiere in the town of Kardzhali helped the local rewilding team engage a wide range of stakeholders.

In the middle of June, a second group of cinereous vultures were translocated to the Rhodope Mountains rewilding landscape in Bulgaria. Their arrival and eventual release is the next step in a long-term programme to re-establish these ecologically important birds as a breeding species.

A long-term release programme means populations of red and fallow deer in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountains are gradually recovering. As the landscape becomes wilder and healthier, there are benefits for local communities too.

Following efforts to ensure they stay, survive and thrive in the local landscape, a group of 14 cinereous vultures have just been released into Bulgaria’s Eastern Rhodope Mountains. This will help to strengthen the circle of life and represents another step towards realising the local rewilding vision.

As a keystone species, vultures are an integral part of healthy ecosystems. The discovery last year of a cinereous vulture colony in the Greater Côa Valley is therefore good news for wild nature and local rewilding efforts.

Cinereous vultures – Europe’s largest and heaviest raptor – have been brought back to Southern Bulgaria, with 17 birds from Spain having been transported all the way to the rewilding landscape of the Rhodope Mountains.

Over the last few months, more than 80 fallow deer have been released into the Rhodope Mountains rewilding landscape in Bulgaria. Adding to the populations of deer already released by the local rewilding team, the animals will enhance wild nature and help to generate economic benefits.

The griffon vulture is an iconic and ecologically important species in the Central Apennines of Italy. Aided by new funding, the local rewilding team are working hard to support population growth.

65 fallow deer were released on the southern shore of the Kardzhali reservoir in November and December, and are now being monitored by the Rewilding Rhodopes team. The release is part of ongoing efforts in the area to restore deer numbers to a viable level, providing a sustainable natural prey and carrion source while reinstating key links in the food web.