His name was Rei del Causse. A name chosen in tribute to the limestone sets in the south of the Massif Central, where he had been released as part of a program to safeguard the bearded gypat, the largest raptor in Europe. On January 20, the GPS tag whose animal is equipped, which also measures its temperature, Send distress signals. A team is quickly dispatched to the site. The 3 -year -old bird is found dead, with the lower body amputated. “The whole basin: the legs and the tail had disappeared”explains Pascal Orabi, coordinator of the Life Gyp’Act program to reintroduce the bearded gypat in France.
Examination was quickly carried out to understand the circumstances of death. No hunting lead was detected and all the analyzes have proven to be negative. “The bird was healthy, indicates the project manager. Unless discovered new elements on the ground, it is unlikely that the exact cause of his death is, one day, established. The mystery remains whole. »»
The bearded gypatus, nicknamed the “bone breaker” because of its way of breaking the bones of dead animals to eat it, is considered to be “almost threatened” on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of the Nature on a global and European scale. In the 19th century, it almost completely disappeared from the old continent. Victim of fear and popular beliefs – he was wrongly accused of attacking herds or even removing children – he is chased and shot.
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