Ariant Biological Reserve, Mallorca – Sept 2024
In September we were invited to join an incredible small team of conservationists in Mallorca, whose aims and ambitions match ours in every way. The Black Vulture Conservation Foundation (BVCF) and Fundación Vida Silvestre Mediterránia (FVSM) have been working hard over the last 40 years to restore and monitor the almost extinct population of Black Vulture to the island of Mallorca, which has seen success on an incredible scale. FVSM’s home, which is nestled in the mountains of NW Mallorca is a private 1000ha Biological Reserve called Ariant, and to describe it as ‘Heaven on Earth’ is NOT an understatement.
The purpose of the trip was to co-host an event with the FVSM team, inviting the public to both FVSM’s visitors centre in Campenet (central north Mallorca) and then up to the stunning Ariant Biological Reserve to see and experience first hand, a species recovery project which has succeeded due to the team’s courage and hard work over a 40-year period. Ariant has never had general public access before due to the site’s sensitivity as an important retreat for biodiversity. However, the FVSM team are now hoping to put together a brand new and inspiring set of educational tours which may start in spring 2025, and see guided access for the very first time around one of the most beautiful locations in the whole of Mallorca.
Event team walking through the Ariant Valley during the afternoon.

Before we cover the event, let’s set some context. In the last century, global biodiversity loss has accelerated at an unprecedented level, driven by ever-increasing human demands on the natural world. Conservationists have the responsibility to not only monitor these declining populations, but innovate ways of restoring and protecting lost species and habitats, helping them to thrive once more, from large landscape-scale rewilding projects to species reintroductions.
Reintroduction programmes have played a critical role in the recovery of many lost species over the last 60 years, particularly for birds of prey that have historically been heavily persecuted and impacted by wide-scale use of pesticides. Through the pioneering of these projects, several iconic raptor species have now been returned to the skies of Western Europe, including the Black (Cinereous) Vulture. These huge birds (Europe’s largest raptor) had experienced substantial declines and near extinction in several regions within their historic range in the last 200-300 years. However, as a result of targeted reintroduction programmes Black Vultures are now recovering and expanding their populations.
Event Review:
Our event started at 09:30 on the morning of September 11th at FVSM’s visitors centre and office HQ at Campanet. This is the education hub for their work, a quiet, shaded and tranquil courtyard with lecture facilities, educational displays and their well-stocked gift shop. To kick-start the event we met our guests and were treated to two superb talks. One from Evelyn Tewes from FVSM on the history of Black Vulture in Mallorca and the amazing work being carried out at their biological reserve Ariant. The other from our very own Brittany Maxted who talked through our recent success with Ospreys in Southern Britain and how both ours and FVSM’s projects have contributed to rewilding Europe’s skies. The talks alone were enough to inspire hope and build aspiration, but the day was far, far from over.
After the talks we were guided to another area of the site, through the main entrance of their visitor’s centre and out towards a large looming bird hide in the woods. Migratory Pied and Balearic Flycatchers were darting from trees above as we made our way up the wooden ramp which led into the hide. Once inside we sat ourselves down in front of a series of large, liftable windows which allowed us to view out across a section of dappled woodland which was fenced off. At first the landscape seemed empty, with just the sound of crickets calling to distract us. Actually that’s not strictly true. The four recently butchered and carefully placed sheep’s legs were also pretty distracting. Then, at the back of the woodlands, movement. A lot of movement. In no time at all five HUGE vultures came bounding down through woods and before we knew it, three Griffon Vultures and two Black Vultures were feeding just yards in front of us!
Black Vultures at the FVSM education centre, Campanet

Now, these are wild vultures, however they’d sadly been injured many years ago due to power lines and wind turbines, meaning they could never be released back into the wild. So, as part of their ongoing educational and people engagement work and to help build the profile of vultures, FVSM built a huge enclosure to house these individuals, and now invite school groups and members of the public to witness their behaviour and see these beautiful birds up close. The squabbling and fighting over the sheep’s legs was quite comical in a morbid kind of way and gave a phenomenal insight into the hierarchical feeding behaviour between these two species. After watching all this mayhem for 30 minutes, we decided we’d seen enough flesh being stripped from bone and agreed it was time to leave Campanet and start our exciting journey towards our afternoon destination: Ariant.
The journey from the FVSM’s visitors centre in Campanet to the base of the mountain which leads up to the Ariant reserve is only about 20 minutes NW. However, the long private road that leads up the mountain to the biological reserve is another 20 minutes, but it’s a journey of pure excitement and beauty. As the road twists, turns and bends along and up the mountain, you begin to get a sense of why the vultures like it up there so much. More Balearic and Pied Flycatchers dashed across the road in front of us as we made our way up through the mature Mallorcan pine forest which was interspersed with breathtaking views out across the Mediterranean mountain range. Then, after the 20 minute ‘ride’, we reached the plateau where finally a full 360 degree panoramic view was almost obtained… almost! The road continued and we briefly descended down the other side of the mountain for about a mile, until there in front of us was a large, wide open valley which channelled out west towards the Mediterranean sea. We had arrived at Ariant.
The Ariant Biological Reserve Valley in all it’s glory

Our guests had no idea what to expect, other than what we’d described, but the truth is, you can never properly prepare to have your breath taken away. As we parked up at the top of the valley, next to Ariant’s 16th century tower, all the reserves best features were on full show. The weather, glorious, the view, awe-inspiring and of course, there were vultures, plenty of vultures. Several members of the group had never seen wild vultures before, so to see both Griffon and Black Vultures lazily soaring overhead was simply too much, and before we knew it, multiple members of the group had been moved to tears, including us. To witness species recovery of this scale is truly unimaginable. Prior to the Black Vulture Conservation Foundations and FVSM work, it was estimated that were only 20 individual Black Vultures left across the whole island. Now there are an estimated 400, with roughly 35-40 pairs successfully breeding each year on Mallorca. The Griffon Vulture story is an interesting one, as they never used to be a resident on Mallorca. In 2008 a strong storm blew c100 Griffon Vulture over from the Spanish mainland onto Mallorca, where instead of trying to re-navigate their way back to Spain, they simply stayed. There was initial concern about whether they’d have an impact on the recovering Black Vulture population, so the teams started monitoring interactions between the two species. Thankfully there were no negative impacts, and in 2012 the Griffon Vultures started to breed too. Now, right across the mountainous regions of Mallorca both species thrive together as they seek out sheep, mule and goat carcasses to feed on, helping farmers clear away rotting and decaying animals from their farms. This is a useful free and important service, one which farmers now embrace and support, having been educated that vultures never kill prey to feed.
Black Vulture soaring over Ariant mountain range

Having immersed ourselves in the view for as long as possible, we then made our way down the Ariant Valley, heading towards the regenerative farmed area where fruit forests, bee hives and recently cut wildflower meadows welcomed us. Several Blue Rock Thrush jumped around the rocky mountain edges and a couple of Wryneck were calling to each other on each side of the valley. Black and Griffon Vulture were never out of view as they passed high overhead, or settled on the tops of the valley crags, as a Booted Eagle decided to join in on the action. We continued and meandered our way through the fields and through some stunning areas of the reserve including some lovely Holme Oak woodland and rough scrub habitat which was full of Redstarts and more Pied Flycatchers.
During our walk down the valley Evelyn provided us with a wealth of information on the history of the reserve, it’s work to improve bio-diversity, vulture ecology and biology which was all absolutely fascinating.

We were then led to a viewpoint hidden in the woods which looked out across distantly into a large meadow where, conveniently, a recently deceased sheep had been left. To our amazement multiple Black and Griffon Vulture were flying in from the surrounding mountains, standing around and taking it in turns to have their fill, before moving aside to let another one in. very different to what we’d observed at Campanet during the morning. To see such volume of wild vultures flying around so healthily and freely was beyond magical. To think that only 40 years ago this scenario would have been impossible to witness on Mallorca, and that if it hadn’t been for all the hard work by the organisations involved then we wouldn’t get to share and indulge in this conservation success. It was a great reminder that in relation to our Osprey work, we still had a long way to go, but with the right approach and teamwork, the successes will come, and that decades down the line, we’ll hopefully be as happy as our new Mallorcan friends. By now it was late afternoon and we were all beginning to get tired legs, and at the risk of becoming vulture food we decided to call it a day and headed back to the transport just as the sun began to set over the mountains.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Evelyn Tewes for her hospitality and kindness in providing this link up with us. It’s been incredibly inspirational to see the work of FVSM and the Black Vulture Conservation Foundation and we wish her and her teams the best of luck with all their work at Ariant over the coming years.
For more information about the Ariant Biological Reserve and the work of FVSM and future events of theirs visit their website here: https://fvsm.eu/reserva-biologica-de-ariant/