A griffon vulture has being released in Kresna Gorge two months ago is entertaining both the locals from village of Cherniche and the travelers on E79 road, connecting Greece to Bulgaria. It perches on trees along the road and on the roofs of houses as its huge size provokes amusement all around. The last it was observed on the roof of the formal school building or being perched on the terrace of a house owned by a member of Municipality of Simitli authority.
The vulture bears blue wing tag number 45 and it was transported a year ago from Spain. After that the bird spent a long period in the acclimatization aviary at Kresna Gorge, but escaped a bit not on time in the wrong season. It was the bad combination between an inexperienced young vulture with the long lasted windless weather conditions, which caused the bird lose the height and went down on the ground, still unable to fly away and join the rest of the colony. Local farmers and FWFF team are frequently providing food to the vulture, which on its hand provokes attraction to people.
The same situation few years ago caused falling of griffon vulture at Kerkini National Park in Greece, where it stayed on the ground a month. A month more the bird spent at Rupite region in Bulgarian side of the border, before the spring came and it flew away to Kresna Gorge.
Recently supplementary feeding of vultures is a tough task because of the harsh winter conditions. The deep snow layer terminated transportation of carcass by vehicle to the feeding stations, but only using of horse-drawn carriage is possible to supply food there.
