Griffon vultures cling to recovery as conservation gains threatened

Efforts to save the griffon vulture population in Cyprus have delivered fragile yet tangible results after three years of intensified conservation work, BirdLife Cyprus said in a New Year post.

Despite once being a familiar sight across the island, vultures declined sharply in the twentieth century due to poisoned baits used against foxes and changes in livestock farming that reduced available carcasses on which they fed.

By the early 2000s, the griffon vulture population had collapsed to just over ten birds...