Project Description
Vulture populations in the Grands Causses are closely linked to the availability of food ressources which is reliant on the activity of pastoral livestock being upheld. But, the number of livestock farmers is decreasing significantly, intensive farming is becoming more widespread and the public rendering service has become industrialised. These factors have reduced food ressource availability for vultures . For many years in the Massif Central, LPO Grands Causses has been working to maintain the food ressource availabilty that is required to sustain the vulture populations present here. This is being carried out through various actions: 1)Historic establishment of a collective feeding station “Charnier de Cassagne” set up during the first griffon vulture reintroduction. LPO Grands Causses provide locally a rendering service to aliment this, and another, feeding station. 2) Creation support for authorised individual feeding platforms run by livestock farmers themselves. These platforms are extremely important for maintaining a strong relationship between farmers and vultures who recover their natural role as renderers. 3) Specific feeding platform implementation for bearded vulture and cinereous vulture. This approach relies on the interspecific competition hypothesis about food accessibility between Griffon vulture and the other scavengers. Meat and bone is placed at selected sites suitable for both species. LPO Grands Causses monitors the efficiency of these specific platforms by using camera traps which also allows identification of individuals of each species through leg ring readings.