The Return of the Vultures

This week, after several months of renovation and renewal of the vulture cage, the vultures returned to the vulture cage on the Nahal Kabara Cliff.
The renovation included adding nesting shelves, water pools, perches and an openable partition that allows for significantly enlarging the cage outside of the breeding season.
Some of the vultures that returned this week were at Ramat Hanadiv before the renovation. A new pair of vultures came to Israel from Cyprus, and they already had two fledglings in the last season while they waited in quarantine at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. The vultures are kept at Ramat Hanadiv as part of a breeding program run by the Nature and Parks Authority, and in close cooperation with the NPA. The vultures are kept in captivity for breeding purposes, and the fledglings are released to nature. When breeding in captivity each pair may produce two or even three eggs per year, while in nature a pair will usually lay only one egg per year. Some of the vultures in the cage cannot live in nature due to various physical disabilities, so in this way we can at least release their young.
During the last year there were a few cases of poisoning in Israel and many vultures died. We hope that we will be able to contribute to the recovery of the vulture in Israel and that the vultures will not disappear from our skies.