Movements of translocated Griffon Vultures (<i>Gyps fulvus</i>) from Sardinia to Corsica call for the transboundary management of an expanding vulture population

Jacopo Cerri; Davide De Rosa; Ilaria Fozzi; Julien Terraube; José Tavares; Franziska Lörcher; Dionigi Secci; Marco Muzzeddu; Jean-François Seguin; Fiammetta Berlinguer

doi:10.4081/rio.2024.714

Authors

Jacopo Cerri
jcerri@uniss.it
Dipartimento di Medicina veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5030-0376
Davide De Rosa Dipartimento di Medicina veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1764-8885
Ilaria Fozzi Dipartimento di Medicina veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy.
Julien Terraube Vulture Conservation Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7060-3988
José Tavares Vulture Conservation Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2660-071X
Franziska Lörcher Vulture Conservation Foundation, Zürich, Switzerland. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5048-319X
Dionigi Secci Agenzia forestale regionale per lo sviluppo del territorio e l’ambiente della Sardegna (Fo.Re.S.T.A.S.), Cagliari, Italy.
Marco Muzzeddu Agenzia forestale regionale per lo sviluppo del territorio e l’ambiente della Sardegna (Fo.Re.S.T.A.S.), Cagliari, Italy.
Jean-François Seguin Syndicat mixte du Parc naturel régional de Corse, Maison des Services publics, Corte, Corsica, France.
Fiammetta Berlinguer Dipartimento di Medicina veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy.

The conservation of Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus), the most abundant and widespread vulture in Europe, has been the focus of two LIFE project in Sardinia, that foresaw, among other actions, the release of individuals to increase population size. Within the project LIFE Under Griffon Wings (2015-2020), out of 76 Griffon Vultures that have been released in North Western Sardinia, 43 have been fitted with GPS/GSM tags. On the 3rd of April 2023, one of these Griffon Vultures, named “Caniga”, crossed the Strait of Bonifacio and reached Corsica. It stayed on the island for 20 days, before returning to Sardinia on the 23rd of April. Despite Griffon Vultures have been occasionally reported in Corsica in the last decades, this was the first time that one of the individuals released within the LIFE “Under Griffon Wings” project was recorded there. This observation provides evidence that expanding Griffon Vultures in Sardinia could also include Corsica in their movements and calls for the transboundary management of vulture populations between the two islands, including both monitoring and conservation actions minimizing anthropogenic mortality.

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