Italian officials passing the birds to Ashley after being caught

I have been working with Birds of Prey for many years, but the sight of so many birds in one place made me feel very sad. These birds should be in the wild, and such a large number of birds taken from the Africa must have a huge impact on the wild population. That aside, they had obviously been cared for incredibly well, as they all looked fit and in excellent condition.

Sexing a White-headed Vulture by the white band on its wing

Both Andy and I took a back seat when it came to catching the birds for re-location, which was very difficult, and I had to sit on my hands. However the people that had cared for them for over a year obviously wanted to finish the work they had started. I know that I would be exactly the same. The first birds to be caught were the African white backed vultures, which we had hoped to select four pairs. However there is no colour variation and only a two percent difference in size between the sexes, so this proved impossible, and we took the first eight birds caught. All were health checked, micro-chipped and placed into their travelling boxes. The White Headed vultures proved to  be easier to sex as, when mature, the females have a white band across their wing and the males are pure black. Even though these vultures were mostly immature it was still possible to pick out males from females, which made the selection of four pairs much easier.

BBC filming whilst the birds are health checked and fitted with micro chips

Then came the big decision of the day, one male white-headed vulture was caught and brought across to Andy and I. When we looked at him he had no toes on either foot, we could only think of two reasons for this, he had either been snared or more likely had a foot injury where infection had set in and ultimately frostbite had taken its toll. Our dilemma was should we take him or leave him? If we take him he would need constant care and monitoring and the inevitable long-term veterinary care that would be required throughout his life. If we leave him, it is probable that every other collection that came to collect birds would discard him in favour of healthier birds. I am sure that most of you have had that feeling of being the last person picked for the football team, I know I have, so we decided to take him home with us to the Trust.

White-backed Vulture being health checked on arrival by vet John Chitty

The last birds to be caught were the hooded vultures, before the trip we had carried out some research on sexing and discovered that there was no difference between the sexes, but you could tell young from old by the colour of the head. So we decided to take mainly immature birds, and at the end of the day ended with 5 dark headed and one light headed vulture. Subsequently after blood tests we had 5 males (dark headed!) and one female (pale headed), which leads me to believe that female hooded vultures mature earlier than males. I have passed this information onto our scientific officer and you never know some good may come of it in the future. Once all the birds had been health checked and were ready to travel, we said our goodbyes and began our journey home.

Speed is of the essence in these situations, the longer the birds are in transit, the higher the risk of fatalities. Our cause was not helped by arriving at the ferry terminal to find the port on strike, an additional journey to the Euro-tunnel, and two interruptions to the trip by customs on both sides of the channel. However Andy’s paperwork was all in order and the birds arrived at the Trust 23 hours after the start of their journey.

Italian Joe is released into his aviary under the watchful eye of the BBC

All the staff, the BBC and most importantly our vet, John Chitty, were waiting for their arrival. This is one of the most nerve racking moments as you open the boxes, not for the fear of being bitten by a vulture, in fact that would be a good sign. This would prove that the birds are fit and well and have survived the journey. My biggest concern was our vulture with no toes, now nicknamed Italian Joe after the BBC cameraman. I had marked his box so that he could be checked first, and I tentatively opened the door. Joe lunged forward and just missed my nose with his beak, what a relief! John systematically gave each bird a thorough health check, and took faecal and blood samples for testing, even with the pressure of his every moved being filmed. The birds were then released into their new aviaries, and within a few days had settled in well, so well in fact there have been signs of breeding behaviour.

The vultures are settled into their new home

One of the nicest sights has been watching 20 vultures having a communal bath, and then all sitting on perches together with their wings outstretched to dry. I have noticed that Joe has his own method of feeding, waiting until another vulture is holding food down with their talons and then he rushes in from behind and tears of chunks of meat. We do supplement his food by giving him golf ball sized piecess of meat, which he can swallow whole, without the need to hold on with his feet. At the moment they are being fed as part of our vulture restaurant, allowing all our visitors to hear their story.

So what happens now? Ultimately I would dearly love to see the birds go back to the wild, and we will do our very best here at the Trust to see this come to fruition, however long this may take. In the mean time the birds are fit, comfortable and safe with us here at the Trust.