The field expedition in Uzbekistan, between the end of July and beginning of August this year, revealed several new large Egyptian vulture congregation sites in Uzbekistan suggesting that the southern part of the country could be one of the most important sites for the species in Central Asia and beyond with numbers between 750 and 900 individuals in total.
This year the Central Asian Vultures Project carried out the expedition with colleagues from the Biodiversity research and conservation center in Kazakhstan (BRCC), and a vulture expert from Nepal. The team managed to successfully tag four Egyptian vultures in southern Uzbekistan (3 adults and 1 sub adult bird) which we called Nodir, Alay, Tuson and Quvvat. Thus, the number of tagged Egyptian vultures in Uzbekistan now totals 13. There are another six juveniles tagged in Kazakhstan by our colleagues from BRCC. Furthermore, the field team found new large congregation sites and breeding territories of the species. The newly found congregation sites hold a minimum of 750 Egyptian vultures in the two main regions of Uzbekistan with this being one of the largest known congregation sites for the species in general. The team also identified new breeding territories and nests of Egyptian vulture, Bearded vulture and Griffon vulture.
The Central Asian Vultures Project experts also organized a training workshop for the rest of the expedition team members, demonstrating methods for trapping and tagging Egyptian vultures and monitoring techniques of cliffs and searching for nests.
The Central Asian Vultures Project is funded by the Hawk Conservancy Trust and the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. We would like to thank to our colleagues from Biodiversity research and conservation center for the collaboration and the support for our work.