Two young Bearded Vultures were fitted with radio transmitters last year. The elder, named Daniel, is a three year old male and he is the responsibility of Sonja Krueger, who we profiled in July. The two year old female, Andalucia, is being tracked by a Spanish team.

Last week data indicated that both transmitters had stopped moving. Sonja made the observation that Daniel seemed to really like the Kamberg area but a closer look revealed that his transmitter was stationary. A search for the transmitter produced neither the device nor an injured or dead bird. Since Andalucia’s data comes Spain, it took a while for the tracking team to realise that her transmitter was also no longer moving. It is located on the escarpment on the Lesotho/Eastern Cape border and is logistically more difficult to search for.

After an extensive search for Daniel’s transmitter Sonja reported: "We found Daniel's transmitter on Saturday morning. We spent many days unsuccessfully searching the area with metal detectors etc., and finally found it quite quickly by searching for the device's UHF frequency with a receiver and antennae thanks to the help of Ben Hoffman (African Bird of Prey Sanctuary) and Cliff Dearden (Electronics expert). The UHF frequency is one with which the device communicates with the satellite and is not meant to be used to "track" the device, but in this case it worked quite well. Luckily the device fell off the bird quite easily and we can assume that Daniel is still alive and well. Although we are no longer receiving great movement data, we can learn from this exercise in terms of adapting the harness and device to ensure that it stays on longer. Lets hope the news is just as good after the search for Andalucia's transmitter this coming weekend".