Ich hatte auch das große Glück bei Merlyn kennen zu lernen, die seit einer Weile den Blog "Big Birdie - Flying free" schreibt. Hier geht es nicht nur um Geier, sondern um alles was Federn hat. Außerdem werden auch die Personen hinter den Federn vorgestellt, nämlich Menschen, die sich leidenschaftlich für den Naturschutz einsetzen und versuchen die Welt zu verbessern. Daher hat es mich umso mehr mit Stolz erfüllt, als Merlyn mich fragte, ob sie auch MEINE Geschichte in ihrem Blog veröffentlichen darf! Bei Fragen zu Geiern kann ich mich einfach nicht kurz fassen und zu meiner Überraschung hat Merlyn kaum ein Detail weggelassen. Ich wünschte nur, sie hätte unauffällig mein Englisch korrigiert ;-) Aber sei es drum, ich hoffe meine Botschaft kommt trotzdem an. Auch wenn ich unser Interview "Fascinated by Vultures – Bettina’s Story" hier abbilden werde, so bitte ich alle Leser trotzdem auf Merlyn's Blog vorbeizuschauen und durch ihre anderen Artikel zu stöbern.
1. Tell us about yourself.
Hi, I am Bettina Boemans, 36 years old. I come from Duisburg, Germany where I with my parents and sister. I studied mechanical and environmental engineering and I work as an engineer for a steel production company in my city. When I was younger I enjoyed taking part in lots of sports like tennis and volleyball, but now I am spend most of my time doing vulture awareness activities and reading good books which I am passionate about.
2. When and how did your interest in vultures start?
Even as a young kid I loved watching vultures at the local Zoo. In North-Rhine Westphalia, the area where I’ve spent most of my life, many big cities have zoos and during the school holidays I often went there with my family. I remember that I always wanted to see the vultures first and it took my family a long time to get me away from the enclosures. In the zoo of my hometown there has always been Eurasian Griffon Vultures. Even though I love all vultures, I think this species is a special one for me. When I went on holidays with my family, for example on a safari to Namibia, I was always watching the sky to look for vultures – and I almost ignored the big fives on the ground. The most interesting part for me was to see a carcass and many vultures feeding from it. At first, everyone else was laughing at my favorites, but at the end of each trip everyone was watching for vultures and people started to respect these amazing birds. I realized that somehow I have a gift for sharing my passion for vultures with other peoples or even making them start loving these beautiful creatures.
In 2010 I spent my first three weeks working as a volunteer in a Eurasian Griffon Vulture rescue center in Croatia, on the beautiful Island of Cres. Because I was so excited I started writing my German blog about vultures the moment I set my volunteering plans. Working with vultures for the first time was life changing! First I thought my blog was just a diary while in Croatia – at that point I had no idea that I would continue my blog up to 2018 with more than 1100 published posts by now!
When I came back home from Croatia I immediately booked flights to go back a few months later and a third time the following year. I was doing lots of research by reading publications, internet articles and chatting to other vulture conservationists. Soon enough I found out about VulPro in South Africa, but I was too afraid to travel to South Africa on my own. I found the strength to apply for a volunteer holiday in South Africa and came to VulPro for the first time in February 2012. One of my best decisions in my life!!! (more details see no.5)
3. You blog about vultures (only?) in Germany. Is there a conservation need for vultures in Europe?
My blog “Faszination Geier” (“fascinated by vultures”) is about vultures, but there are also some “special guests” represented like Marabou Storks, Secretary Birds or Shoebills. I know it would be much better to write my blog in English for a bigger audience, but unfortunately I just don’t have the time to translate everything. And there is no similar blog about vulture in German as far as I know. Anyway, I always post many pictures and try to share my story with others, even if they can’t understand the text.
In Germany we no longer have vultures in the wild although sometimes birds from different countries fly past looking for food. In Europe we have four different vulture species, the Eurasian Griffon Vulture, the Eurasian Black Vulture (Cinereous Vulture), the Egyptian Vulture and the Bearded Vultures. Life’s getting harder for vultures in Europe. The Bearded Vulture was extinct in the Alps a long time ago until the Reintroduction Program in the Alps was founded in the 80s. In the past, more than 200 captive bred Bearded Vultures were released and many years ago the birds started breeding in the wild. In 2014 I was able to take part in the release of Bearded Vultures in France and Austria and twice I attended the Annual Bearded Vulture meeting organized by the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF). The population is still small and it’s important to get more birds with different genetics. The Egyptian Vulture is almost extinct in Europe and in 2015 I was supporting a project in Madzharovo, Bulgaria. It was the end of breeding season when the young birds started to fledge. Almost every nest got its own protector in case the chick gets into trouble during its first flight. Luckily nothing happened to “my” nest. The Eurasian Black Vulture in critically endangered in Europe and there are not many birds left in the wild. To raise awareness of how important reintroduction programs are I coauthored and published a children’s book about the journey of a young Eurasian Black Vulture who is released to the wild and is very scared, until he meets some friends (chicks of the other three European Vulture species). In Spain and France there are great numbers of Eurasian Griffon Vultures, but in the Balkans and some other countries the numbers are declining rapidly. There are so many threats making vultures’ live very dangerously and people have to start caring for and protecting these birds. Even though some countries have more troubles with this or that threat, in the end vultures are facing extinction almost everywhere. People and conservationists need to learn from each other’s experience and work on the best solutions to keep our vultures alive.
4. What has been the response to your blog over the years from the beginning till today?
From the beginning people started sending emails to me with questions or interesting facts about vultures. Some people I met in “real life”, some people I just got to know by email or Facebook (my international page is “fascinated by vultures”) and some people became friends. Twice I became co-author of vulture kid’s books, I was invited to vulture programs or breeding programs in zoos worldwide and I realized: Vultures are connecting people! Sometimes, when I don’t have any news about vultures or I am just too tired to spend much time on the computer, people will tell me: “Hey, what’s going on with your blog? We’d like to get some more news!” Then I feel guilty and get focused again 😉 The response is always positive and I am sure my blog and my passion helped changing people’s mind about vultures.
5. You have a very special relationship with VulPro in South Africa where we met, tell us about it.
When I came to VulPro for the first time in 2012 I felt like I was in vultures’ paradise! More than 100 vultures were living in the enclosures “in the backyard” and many more vultures in the wild. I enjoyed every single moment I could spend with the birds inside the enclosure and helping rehabilitate the injured birds. When I arrived, Kerri Wolter, founder of VulPro, immediately introduced me to her birds, even before I could bring my luggage to my room. That’s when I realized I’ve found my vulture sister for life!!!
6. What have your experiences taught you over the years on this journey in vulture conservation?
I’ve learned that you can make a difference, even if you are just an individual. Sometimes I felt like I have a more intense influence on local people than local conservationists themselves. When people realize I am traveling all the way from Germany to a foreign country, spending my annual leave and my money to protect a species, that’s not even living in my home country, people get curious and like to understand why I am “sacrificing” so much to vulture conservation. They start listening to me and realize the privilege they have to have vultures in their own surrounding and they ask for ways to help and protect vultures. They realize vultures are worth being loved!
Vultures are still misunderstood in many ways all over the world. They are treated very badly, just because of prejudices or superstitions, their special diet on carcasses or the way they look. To me they are a wonderful creation of evolution and the way they look absolutely makes sense once you understand the differences in all vulture species. Raising awareness to locals is absolutely important to find a way to protect vultures. People need to understand that whenever people interfere in nature they will cause unnatural reactions. And most of the time vultures will be the victims.
I could point out hundreds of amazing experiences while working with vultures, but maybe one last thing: Vultures never get boring to me and always make me happy when I am sad! Even after spending one year working with vultures every day and supporting vulture projects all over the world since 2010, I still hold my breath in admiration when a wild vulture is flying in the sky, I still smile when a tiny vulture chick is begging for food and I can’t stop watching vultures feeding and fighting at a carcass. The first sound of a vulture chick inside the egg, only 2 days before hatching, is the sweetest sound on earth and sharing this moment you will never ever forget in your life!
7. From your dedication and love for vultures, what do you hope to impart to the rest of the world?
One very fascinating experience for me was to understand, that I am blessed with a special gift: To talk about my passion in a way that people love to listen to me and open their hearts for vultures. I never felt like being someone special and I never wanted to be in the spotlight, because I thought I had nothing to say. But now I know I can stand up for vultures, raise awareness just because I adore these birds so much and I can make a difference in the world. I still feel anxious when I am doing a vulture talk, but in the end I always get amazing feedback. The best moment is, when people tell me: “I have never been interested in vultures. But after listening to you, I realize that these birds are fascinating and I think I’ve started to like them!” When people like something, they want to protect it!
8. In your opinion, is the future bright for vultures? What needs to change?
Unfortunately I doubt there will be a bright future for vultures. When I started working with vultures I told myself: I don’t want any of the 23 vulture species to be instinct before I die! After many years in vulture conservation, all these horrible news about Diclofenac, vulture mass poisonings by poachers and seeing too many vulture victims by power line collisions, electrocution or other threats I guess my days – or rather the days of vultures – are numbered.
There are so many problems in the world: Too many people, too little space and no respect to Mother Nature. Instead of being grateful to have such a fantastic clean-up crew like vultures, people destroy the wild and open up new agricultural and urban areas. Although the deadly impact of Diclofenac to vultures is known and a vulture-proven, alternative medicine is available, Diclofenac became legal in Europe. Although thousands of vultures die of power line collisions or electrocutions and engineers invented power line constructions that are vulture save, people don’t change the dangerous constructions into safe ones. Although scientists identified a long list of threats to vultures, they still spend too much time in conferences philosophizing about “possible” threats instead of going out in the field and actually protecting the birds. Sometimes I get the feeling people prefer a good picture in the field and their name in an article than making their hands dirty cutting a carcass to feed injured vultures. Although vultures are an endangered species, people hardly ever get condemned to a penalty. And although there are more and more vulture conservation projects founded it feels like tilting at windmills.
I want to be optimistic, especially when I get the chance to work with passionate people and see what they have to deal with any single day. But it’s getting harder and harder. For example when you spend many weeks treating an injured bird and just a few days later the same birds hits a power line and dies. Or you release a whole bunch of captive bred chicks and months later these once healthy fledglings come back to your rehab centre with permanent injuries that will make another release impossible.
I pray that all vultures fly safe and keep their distance from humans and any unnatural threats. And in between we should all do our best to protect this guild and support all vulture conservation projects as much as possible. These dedicated people in vulture rescue centres hardly have anything for themselves, but spend time with vultures and protecting a species gives them so much more than a good salary and personal property. Any injured vulture, that can be released, might raise plenty of chicks one day that help the population to survive. And even if an injured bird is non-releasable, the rescue centres should get the support to keep the bird alive, start a breeding program and release captive bred chicks to the wild. I have seen so many wing-amputated vultures falling in love, being amazing parents and doing a fantastic job to raise a strong and healthy chick. I tell you, this moment, when the chick of non-releasable but happy parents spreads its wings and takes off to the blue sky, it worth all the sleepless nights, the sorrow and the efforts.
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