![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/A-cinereous-vulture-left-and-a-griffon-vulture-credit-CC-3.0-BY-SA.jpg\")
A cinereous vulture (left) and a griffon vulture \u2013 credit Mike Prince CC 3.0 BY-SA<\/p>\n A cinereous vulture (left) and a griffon vulture \u2013 credit Mike Prince CC 3.0 BY-SA<\/p>\n
Young griffon vultures are set to be reintroduced to the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, around 100 years after they went extinct there.<\/p>\n
The reintroduction is part of a grand vision for \u201cEurope\u2019s Yellowstone,\u201d a national park based in the Carpathians that would boast robust populations of wildlife unrivalled by any ecosystem on the continent.<\/p>\n
It began in 2009, when Foundation Conservation Carpathia<\/a> (FCC), an organization that has been restoring landscapes in the southern Carpathians called the F\u0103g\u0103ra\u0219, targeted three major species reintroductions to restore the chains of food and function chains that still include Europe\u2019s three largest predators: the Eurasian lynx, the wolf, and the brown bear.<\/p>\n With the bison, beaver, and vulture, the F\u0103g\u0103ra\u0219 would then also have its three largest custodians, as the beaver\u2019s effect on rivers, the bison\u2019s effect on the underbrush<\/a>, and the vulture\u2019s effect on carcasses, are essential for a perfectly functioning ecosystem.<\/p>\n But all four native European vulture species have been extirpated in the Carpathians for a century; victims of persecution, habitat loss, and lead poisoning.<\/p>\n Together with the Vulture Conservation Foundation, the FCC aims to reintroduce griffon vultures to the mountains by releasing young birds into large aviaries in-situ to acclimatize to their new surroundings.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they are released immediately, they would just fly off and go somewhere else,\u201d said<\/a> Christoph Promberger, co-founder of FCC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vultures are the last keystone species missing from the Romanian Carpathians. They\u2019re nature\u2019s sanitary police. They\u2019ve been gone for 100 years, it\u2019s time to bring them back.\u201d<\/p>\n Vultures are wide-ranging scavengers, capable of traveling long distances while barely flapping their wings. In 1986, in neighboring Bulgaria to the southeast, there were only 3 pairs of griffon vultures remaining in the wild, but by 2016 they\u2019d made a triumphant return.<\/p>\n Cinereous vultures from Bulgaria have even been recorded flying into the F\u0103g\u0103ra\u0219 Mountains, and it\u2019s hoped those in Romania will travel just as freely. FCC plans to begin with griffon vultures, and follow-up with cinereous and bearded vultures.<\/p>\n ROMANIAN NEWS: Romania Hits 94% Recycling After Launching Largest Return Plan in the World<\/a><\/p>\n While all three species are scavengers by trade, bearded vultures have some of the most acidic stomachs in the animal kingdom, and can swallow animal bones whole to support their diet of marrow. They and the other vultures play a crucial role by cleaning up dead animals and preventing the spread of diseases, while quickly recycling nutrients into the soil through a combination of their messy eating and nutrient rich droppings.<\/p>\n In 2016, the Romanian government adopted a non-binding memorandum for supporting the creation of a F\u0103g\u0103ra\u0219 Mountains National Park, which they labeled a \u201cEuropean Yellowstone.\u201d Stretching 2,000 square kilometers across the southern end of the Carpathian range, they include the highest mountain peak in Romania, Moldoveanu.<\/p>\n MORE STORIES LIKE THIS: Bison Ranchers Return Thousands of Animals to Native Lands and Witness Total Rejuvenation of Ecosystem<\/a><\/p>\n