Riga was released near Kotel in 2018 nested in the Dadya-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park. We are extremely happy with this good news. Once again, it shows that so many people are worth the effort, despite the bad incident near Ticha.
We remind you that Riga is one of the seven Black Vultures released by the innovative for Bulgaria release method - hacking. Through an artificial nest, built specially for them on a platform on a tree near Kotel. Riga the vulture was donated to Bulgaria by the Riga Zoo from Latvia in 2018. In May she will be 4 years old. Immediately after leaving her nest, Riga began her wandering period searching for a place to settle. Now, after 4 years, she chose to nest in the Eastern Rhodopes, in Dadia – Lefkimi – Soufli Forest National Park. The place is not accidental, there is a wild colony of Black Vultures, where Riga has found a partner and decided to start a family. Clue was provided by her transmitter, with which Riga, as well as all other Black Vultures released under the project „Bright future for the Black Vulture in Bulgaria“, LIFE14NAT/BG/000649 are equipped. Satellite transmitter data was interpreted by colleagues from the Fund for Wild Flora and Fauna, and the colleague Sylvia Zackkak from Dadia – Lefkimi – Soufli Forest National Park Management body- was so kind as to confirm nesting in the field.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that Riga will create a generation and thus increase the species population.

Let us briefly recall the wanderings of the traveler Riga! 

Greece
After her release on July 25, 2018 in Kotel and a short period of adaptation in the area, the young Black Vulture bravely went her own way. In October 2018, Riga headed to Macedonia, where she was detected by her satellite transmitter near Veles and along the Vardar River. A few days later, she continued to move south and was already in Greece, 30km from the Macedonian border. Moving to Athens, she reached the Peloponnese peninsula. Quickly adapting to local conditions, she wintered in the Mesolonghi area with other local vultures.

Riga in the Alps
In the spring of 2019, Riga headed north from southern Greece, traveling 257 km in one day and crossing Albania. The bird spent one night in Kosovo before heading back. The vulture was observed in the Uvac Nature Reserve in Serbia, along with Griffon Vultures in the region. On April 24, Riga returned to Bulgaria, where she stayed for a short time. The young bird spent the summer of 2019 in the Alps, mainly in Austria, where she stayed for 3 and a half months. From there, the traveler headed south searching of a warmer place to spend the winter. The bird crossed Slovenia and Croatia and stayed for a short time in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

From Bulgaria again to the Alps
After 19 months of wandering in April 2020, Riga was spotted again in Bulgaria - in her native place in the Kotel Mountain. What was interesting for the project team was the possibility that Riga would have a potential partner, as she was observed to spend some time with another young Black Vulture in the Mesolonghi area. Thanks to the transmitter she carries on her back, Riga sends us regular signals about her location, so our colleagues from Hohe Tauern also have been monitoring her and even managed to photograph her in the Park. Unfortunately, our expectations for Riga to nest in the Stara Planina region did not come true and at the beginning of the summer the bird flew north to Romania again, but quickly returned to the south and after stopping in the aviary for adaptation of vultures in Vratsa Balkan, through Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia, at the end of May arrived again in Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria, where for the second year in a row she welcomed the summer of 2020.

2021 Riga settled in Greece 
After return from the Alps for her usual wintering ground – Greece, this time Riga didn’t left in the summer for the Alps but left in Greece instead.