At the beginning of the 1980s, black vultures, the largest birds in Europe, had almost died out on Mallorca. An Aegypius monachus has a wingspan of some 9 feet or 2.7 metres and when, in its brown and black plumage, it glides majestically over the peaks of the Tramuntana Range it is sure to turn the heads of all ramblers and ornithologists.

With a population of over 100 birds its continued existence on the island is regarded as assured thanks to an extensive programme of protection and of raising young in which the Austrian biologist Dr. Evelyn Tewes is particularly involved. She is working for the Foundation for the Protection of the Black Vulture (Fundación para la Conservación del Buitre Negro). The project is being supported mainly by the Balearic Islands Government and the German Zoological Society in Frankfurt. In addition the project has been benefiting from European Union LIFE Nature funding for eight years.

These are occasions which make Dr. Tewes both 'sad' and 'angry'. Two vultures have been found dead this year already. Whether they died by poisoning is still being investigated. There have already been occasions in the past when these rare birds have been brought down with shot. Moreover, Mallorca has the only island population of vultures in the world. Because of this, the education of the island's population concerning the birds' way of life is an important component of the protection programme. 

It is the dream of animal protectors to extend the range of the birds out from the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands into France and on to the Balkans. These Europe-wide plans are being co-ordinated from Mallorca. Last year ten black vultures, originating from Extremadura, were taken to southern France to establish them in the Massif Central and in the foothills of the Alps so as to strengthen the likelihood of survival of the species there. 

The black vulture is no baldie like many of its kind. It has feathers on its head arranged like a ruff and, with a little imagination, reminding one of the neckwear of a monk hence its German name, literally translated, of 'monk vulture'.