Falconry Center Breeds Rare African Vultures to Prevent Extinction

As of August 2025, a falconry center in mid-Wales is working to breed rare African hooded vultures in an effort to save the critically endangered species from extinction. Hooded vultures, like other vulture species across Africa and Asia, have seen their numbers plummet, with fewer than 150,000 remaining in the wild.

The decline of vultures has had devastating consequences in the past. In India during the 1990s, the unintentional decimation of vulture populations led to an estimated half a million deaths over five years due to the spread of disease and bacteria that the vultures would have removed from the environment.

Luce Green, of Falconry Experience Wales, has dedicated her life's work to studying and caring for these remarkable birds. She and her partner Barry MacDonald have introduced a hand-reared male vulture named Togo to a female called Hope, in the hopes of successfully breeding the pair and contributing to the global conservation effort.

With only around 200 hooded vultures in human-based environments worldwide, the race is on to save the species from the brink of extinction. Breeding programs like the one in Newtown, Powys are vital, as the threats of poisoning and the use of vulture parts in traditional medicine continue to decimate wild populations.