Nature’s bald waste collector.

The griffon vulture lives in mountain meadows and pristine, warm regions in southern Europe and North Africa.

The griffon vulture in a nutshell

eats
carcasses of dead animals
inhabits
Southern Europe and North Africa
excels at
sharp-sightedness over great distances

Taking off and soaring

With a wingspan of at least 2.5 metres, the griffon vulture is a very large bird. It soars above the landscape at exceptionally high altitudes of up to 4.5 kilometres. The vulture requires a lot of airspace when taking off, and it searches for carcasses from the air. It also keeps a close eye on fellow vultures.

Flying griffon vulture

The status of this species on the IUCN Red List is least Concern.

  • least Concern
  • near threatened
  • vulnerable
  • endangered
  • critically Endangered
  • extinct in the Wild

Carrion bird

Griffon vultures are carrion birds, eating only dead animals. That might sound rather unsavoury, but griffon vultures actually keep the landscape clean! By eating the carcasses of dead animals, they help to prevent diseases and recycle nutrients. This makes them an extremely important part of their ecosystem.

A griffon vulture building its nest.

Jostling for food

A griffon vulture has incredible eyesight and can spot prey from a distance of 6.5 kilometres. When a vulture finds a carcass, it swoops down at tremendous speed. Other vultures quickly follow, and a crowd of up to 30 griffon vultures can be seen vying for a single carcass within 10 minutes.

Support from ARTIS

ARTIS has been supporting a griffon vulture reintroduction project in Sardinia since 2018 and contributes to scientific research by sponsoring GPS transmitters. In 2022, griffon vultures from ARTIS were also released for the third time in Sardinia, where they now live in the wild. The GPS transmitters and scientific research are helping to track the previously released vultures and monitor their behaviour in the wild. They appear to effortlessly join their wild fellows with no problem, and one of the released vultures has even already hatched an egg. A total of seven vultures from ARTIS are now soaring the Sardinian skies.

The griffon vulture has been adopted by Tankstation Zwart and act Fort Lawyers.