The Current and Future Status of

Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) in

Lakes District (Turkey)”

Assist. Prof. Dr.Yasemin ÖZTÜRK

Mehmet Akif Ersoy University

Gölhisar Vocational School of Higher Education

Department of Forestry

Forestry and Forest Products

Gölhisar / BURDUR

Master thesis: BIOECOLOGY OF GRIFFON VULTURE (Gyps fulvus)

POPULATION IN SÜTÇÜLER (ISPARTA)

PhD thesis: BIOECOLOGY OF GRIFFON VULTURE (Gyps fulvus)

POPULATIONS IN AFYONKARAHİSAR, ANTALYA AND ISPARTA PROVINCE

Lakes District (Turkey)

How many species?

✓ Egyptian Vulture, Küçük akbaba Neophron percnopterus,

✓ Cinereous Vulture, Kara akbaba Aegypius monachus,

✓ Bearded Vulture, Sakallı akbaba Gypaetus barbatus

✓ Griffon Vulture, Kızıl akbaba Gyps fulvus,

Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus

Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus

Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus

A project related to biodiversity carried out during the period between 2013-2014 in Isparta.

Vultures provide the important ecologicalservice of recycling carrion biomass thuspreventing the accumulation of deadbiomass, and contributing to waste removal,disease regulation, and nutrient cycling(DeVault, 2003)

The Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus) is a colonialcliff-nesting scavenger that inhabits thewestern Palearctic. Griffons often nest incolonies that usually comprise less than 20pairs, but can include more than 100 pairs(Cramp and Simmons, 1980)

Study Area

PhD thesis

Fig.1. Location of study area

PhD thesis study was carried between

August 2010 and August 2012 at the

observation points determined in

Afyonkarahisar (inner part of western

Anatolia), Antalya and Isparta (south

of Turkey) (Fig.1).

✓ Productivity,

✓ Fledgling success

✓ Breeding success

And also,

We observed;

The characteristics, location, elevation, material of the nests, laying date,incubation times and periods, chick rearing period, number of thenestling hatched and the number of fledglings

Data of nesting and roosting points gathered by GPS (Global Positioning System) was

entered to ArcGIS program and the data of altitudes that couldn’t be accessed was

measured by Theodolite DTS/DT5S (Öztürk et al., 2015).

Maps (aspect, slope, geology,

lithology, soil and altitude) used in the

study have been constituted by applying

digitization method of ArcGIS, an

application of GIS (Geographic

Information Systems), to the

topographic maps with 1:25000 scale

prepared by general command of

mapping.

**Nesting and roosting points and

soil structure, land use, rock structure,

rock age and aspects of these points

were determined by the maps obtained

from ArcGIS.

By applying Barlett test for variance homogeneity and Kolmogorov Smirnov test for

normal distribution fitness, the variables were tested to see whether it fitted the

preconditions of the parametric tests and were tested using t-test, analyses of

variance (ANOVA), Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal Wallis. Tukey test and

Bonferroni-Dunn test were used.

PCA analysis concerning nest site selection was examined. Five factors were

determined for the analysis in the study. Among these, the ones with more than 80%

total variance explanation degree were considered. Varimax data rotation was used

for the fundamental components of factor analysis.

Data Analysis

✓ We investigated the factors influencing the nest site

selection, population status and breeding success of the

griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) in the provinces of

Afyonkarahisar (inner part of western Anatolia), Antalya and

Isparta (south of Turkey).

Observation regions where bare rocky structure

dominates (Afyonkarahisar, Antalya and Isparta)

were found to be the most important breeding

and roosting sites of the griffon vultures.

For these three regions, nesting and roosting

sites were mountainous, high, steep and

covered with limy rock.

Breeding activities were observed in all these regions. Besides rebuilding the old nest,

the griffons have used the rigid, thick twigs of old black pines (Pinus nigra) for the

bottom of nests while have used the leaves of young pines for the top

Interestingly, one of the vultures has been found to carry some mistletoe

(Viscum album) to the nest for a medical purpose (July 1, 2012 1310).

It was found that altitude, aspect, slope, distance to road and distance to

residential area of the nest have an influence on the nesting site choice of

the vultures.

As a result of the analyses, 4 factors that explain the total changes were

considered. Distance, altitude, slope and aspect are separately sufficient for

the characterization of nests (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Criteria in the nesting site choice of the species according to Axis 1 and Axis 2

Different kinds of choices of nesting sites have been made for different

type of nesting areas by the species.

✓ The species in Afyonkarahisar has chosen to build nests on bare

rocky areas at high altitudes (1538.8 m ± 56.6), distant from the

road and residential areas, in the eastward;

✓ the species in Antalya and Isparta have chosen to build their nests on

bare rocky areas with lower altitudes (respectively 501.3±60.4,

907.5±380.6 ), southward, relatively closer to the road and residential

areas.

68.1% of the griffon vultures have chosen bare rocky areas for nesting and

roosting, 14.9% have chosen Mediterranean terra rossa, 8.5% have chosen

red-brown Mediterranean soil and limeless brown earth for nesting and

roosting (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Soil structure of nesting and perching points

bare rocky

Mediterranean terra rossa

red-brown Mediterranean soil

limeless brown

It was determined that the more vulnerable nests such as the ones in bare rocky areas were built in areas with

higher altitude and further from the roads and residential areas . In the case of our study, 61.7% of the nests

were found to be facing east, 19.1% facing west, 8.5% facing southwest and 4.3% of the nests were found to

be facing south (Figure 3). The nests facing east were different and further apart than the other nests. The nests

facing east had a mean distance of 10632 m ±4066 to the road while the nests facing northeast had a mean

distance of 373 m (p<0.001). The nests facing east had a mean distance of 4261 m ±853 to the residential areas

(p<0.001).

Figure 3. aspects (directions) of the nesting and roosting points

East

West

South

Northeast

Southwest

Productivity, fledgling success and breeding success on Akdag Natural Park (Afyonkarahisar)

have been found to be higher than on the other two areas.

Characteristics of the vulture

population in Akdag Natural

Park (Afyonkarahisar) have

been investigated for the first

time in this study. With a very

high productivity and

breeding success, Akdag

population is thought to be a

good model for the

protection of this species.

Loss of eggs has been seen in Antalya in both breeding seasons. This loss has been caused by

the predators or by the characteristics of the eggs.

The number of individuals in study areas

0

15

30

45

60

20102011

2012

Isparta antalya Afyonkarahisar

The results of our study was showed that maximum individual numbers were 44 (avg. 33) inAugust 2010, 38 (avg. 17) in August 2011, 51 (avg. 22.87) in July 2012 in Afyonkarahisar;

12 (avg. 5.6) in September 2010, 13 (avg. 5.75) in February 2011, 5 (avg. 1.62) January 2012 inAntalya,

and 6 in (avg. 1.4) November 2010, 3 (avg. 0.75) in June 2011, 6 (avg. 1.5) in March 2012 inIsparta.

While the number of individuals increased in Akdağ Natual Park in Afyonkarahisar according toyears, it significantly decreased in Antalya and Isparta. The number of species decreasedbecause of habitat degradation and chemical substance.

We know that the recent increase in the use of chemicals in agriculture in Turkey

is causing a decrease in the food sources and is adversely affecting the

characteristics of the vulture populations.

Populations in North Africa and Turkey are suspected to be in decline owing to

persecution, shooting, poisoning and loss of suitable food owing to changing

farming practices (BirdLife International, 2016).

Especially,

✓ Habitat degration (marble quarry )✓ Poisoning

CONCLUSIONS

Birds are bioindicators as they show the fastest reactions to environmentalchanges.

✓ Environmental stress found in the regions where the griffon vultures, thelast member of the food chain, choose for nesting cause this species toleave the area or to die, like in Antalya and Isparta.

✓ Food left by the local people to poison the wild animals, especially boarsand foxes which harm the fields and gardens, was found to be eaten by thegriffon vultures in Antalya Koprulu Canyon National Park and nearby. Thismay cause the loss of individuals. Supplementary feeding as a precautionarymeasure can be a useful tool to reduce illegal poisoning (Margalida et al.,2014).

✓ On the other hand, lots of marble quarry recently opened in Isparta had anegative influence on this species (Öztürk and Tabur, 2013). Active nests of2012 were more distant from the residential areas because of the increasein the influence of threatening factors. Removing such problems has a greatimportance for the sake of both humans and this species

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and now

We prepared a project and offered it (TÜBİTAK).

Project name;

Mapping and Modeling The Potential

Distribution of Griffon Vulture in Lakes District

The study was funded by the Süleyman Demirel University

(The Scientific Research Projects Unit, No: 2147-D-10).

Thank you for listening to me patiently.