In August 2009 the Armenian Society for the Protection of Birds jointly with scientist from Ilia Chavchavadze University (Georgia) Alexander Gavashelishvili fitted a 3 months old juvenile Cinereous Vulture with patagial wing tags and satellite received transmitters (PTT). This effort builds on the follow up action of tracking juvenile vultures program launched by ASPB in 2006 using wing tags and satellite tagging units.
Up to now, a total of 3 Cinereous Vulture juveniles have been tagged by ASPB ornithologists with patagial wing tags and satellite received transmitters (PTT), and one more juvenile is marked with a wing tag coded as ‘03 A’, where ‘A’ stands for the first capital letter of Armenia and 03 is the serial number of juveniles tagged so far.
The wing tags grant scientist a possibility to identify the bird as an Armenian bird, even in flight, while owing to the satellite received transmitter (PTT) ASPB receives regular updates on movements of Cinereous Vulture individuals within a particular period of time.
According to the data received via the satellite program, it can be stated that a juvenile vulture tagged in August of 2009 soared the Armenian sky up until November and embarked on a long journey only in the second half of the month. It is now not far from the town of Morvarid (Iran) mastering the coastal shores of the Persian Gulf.
Since the cinereous vulture juveniles return to their nesting grounds only when they attain maturity (they become mature at the age of 4-5 years old) we will only follow the movements of this young individual with scrutiny and hope that it will make its way back home, where it was marked.