Bearded Vulture

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is the largest bird of prey in the Alps, recognisable by its wingspan of nearly three metres and by itshabit, unique amongst vertebrates, of feeding almost exclusively on bones. Extinct across the Alps in the early decades of the 20th century, it has returned to breed in the Aosta Valley thanks to an international reintroduction project launched in 1978.

The bearded vulture is the largest bird in the Alps: its wingspan reaches 270–285 cm, its total length 110–115 cm, and its weight 5–7 kg. Adults can be recognised by their rusty-orange plumage on the breast and belly — a colour that is not natural but results from their habit of bathing in mud rich in iron oxides — by the dark mask around theeye and by the characteristic tuft of stiff feathers beneath the beak, which gives the species its name. In flight, it can be distinguished from the griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus), with which it shares part of its Alpine range, by its diamond-shaped tail and its fully feathered head, in contrast to the griffon vulture’s bare neck.

Its diet is the most distinctive feature of the species: the bearded vulture is the only vertebrate whose diet consists of 70–90 per cent bone. Larger bones are carried in flight and dropped onto flat rock slabs chosen as “bone-crushing sites” (ossaries), where they are then crushed and swallowed; its highly acidic digestive system is capable of dissolving even large bone fragments.

The species had become extinct throughout the Alps by the early 20th century, due to direct persecution linked to unfounded legends (its reputation as a predator of lambs, whichorigin of the common name “lamb vulture”, has no basis in its feeding behaviour). The last documented killing in the Alps dates back to 1913, in Val di Rhêmes, in the Aosta Valley. In Italy, the species became extinct as a breeding bird in 1969.

Its return is the result of an international reintroduction project launched in 1978 in Morges (Switzerland), involving France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria: from 1986 onwards, birds bred in captivity as part of a coordinated breeding programme involving European zoos were released into the Alps. The first post-reintroduction breeding in the wild was recorded in 1997 in Haute-Savoie. In 2017, the Alpine population was estimated at 46 breeding pairs, totalling 208–251 individuals.

In the Aosta Valley, the species breeds on the Aosta Valley side of the Gran Paradiso National Park. The first fledgings of young bearded vultures born to pairs that had established themselves independently (rather than through direct release) date back to 2012, at the sites in Valsavarenche and Val di Rhêmes; the nest at Cogne recorded its first fledgling in 2015. In 2026, there were five active nests within the Park’s territory, distributed across Valsavarenche, Val di Cogne, Val di Rhêmes and, on the Piedmont side, the Orco Valley — the latter having been reached by the species without any direct reintroduction efforts. Since 2012, more than 30 young birds have fledged in the Park’s valleys in total.

The conservation status of the species requires an analysis on two levels, which do not coincide. Globally, the IUCN Red List classifies Gypaetus barbatus as ‘Near Threatened’. At the level of the Italian population, however, the Italian Red List of Vertebrates classifies it as ‘Critically Endangered’ (CR): a discrepancy due to the fact that the Italian population, whilst growing, remains numerically small and entirely dependent on the outcome of the reintroduction project, whilst the global assessment takes into account larger populations in other parts of the range (the Pyrenees, Africa, Asia). The remaining documented threats to the Italian population include saturnism (lead poisoning, caused by ingesting the remains of animals killed with lead ammunition), direct persecution and the reduction in wild grazing land, which limits the availability of carcasses.

The bearded vulture is a sedentary, territorial and monogamous species; pairs occupy the same territory permanently throughout their entire life cycle. It is long-lived: 20–25 years in the wild, up to 40–45 in captivity. Since 2006, the Alps have taken part in the IOD (International Observation Day), a European day of synchronised bearded vulture censuses which now also involves the Massif Central, the Pyrenees and certain sites in Spain and Bulgaria, coordinated by the Vulture Conservation Foundation.

Within the Gran Paradiso National Park, sightings of birds in flight, particularly in the valleys of Cogne, Valsavarenche and Rhêmes, are not uncommon during the favourable season; access to nesting sites is regulated by the Park Authority to minimise disturbance, with restricted zones established around active nests.

Fact sheet

Common name: Bearded Vulture
Scientific name: Gypaetus barbatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Species: diurnal bird of prey, order Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae (subfamily Gypaetinae)
Distribution: Southern mountainous Eurasia and eastern/southern Africa; in Europe, found in the Pyrenees, Corsica, Crete, the Balkans and, following reintroduction, in theAlpine range Habitat: rocky faces and cliffs in high mountains, in open habitats above the tree line
Diet: scavenger, specialising in the bones and skeletal remains of dead wild and domestic ungulates