It has been reported on several occasions that the Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus, after at least 70 years since the last breeding record in the Madonie, nested in 2026 and that a chick was born which is now almost ready to leave the nest. The birth of the first Griffon Vulture had been announced during the conference “Extinctions and Rewilding”, held in Palermo on 17-18 April 2026, arousing great interest in the scientific community. The breeding success represents the first significant result of the reintroduction project promoted by the Ente Parco delle Madonie together with the Fondazione Internazionale Biodiversità del Mediterraneo and the Municipality of Isnello. The initiative, launched in 2021 with the construction of the acclimatisation aviary at the feeding station in the Terra dei Poveri district, has also involved the Regional Department of Land and Environment, Rotary International District 2110 Sicily and Malta, the Parco dei Nebrodi and the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sicilia. We are very pleased to announce that a second Griffon Vulture nest has been found, not far from the first, with a chick almost ready to fledge.
As already mentioned, the presence of the Griffon Vultures in the Madonie has had a ‘magnet’ effect on the Griffon Vultures of the Nebrodi. Otherwise, the Griffon Vultures released in the Madonie from 2023-2024 onwards could not have bred, as they had not yet reached sexual maturity.
Finally, continuing the analysis of the success of the reintroduction, this was made possible by the wide availability of ungulates as food in the feeding stations set up in the Parco delle Madonie; these ungulates are culled during the drives carried out as part of the ungulate control plan, which is necessary to prevent damage to the environment and to agriculture in the Madonie caused by Fallow Deer and Wild Boar.
At present, in 2026 we can count the nesting of two pairs of Griffon Vultures after 70 years of absence, and the nesting for the second consecutive year of the other small vulture, the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus, also absent from the Madonie for several decades.