In 2022 the guirre (Egyptian vulture) nested for the first time in Timanfaya National Park after more than twenty years of absence. The same pair of guirres that nested again in 2024 has now bred once more. The news confirms “the incipient recovery” in Lanzarote of the population of this species, which in the 1990s was on the brink of extinction because of the indiscriminate use of poisons and human pressure.
As for this pair of guirres, their breeding began in early January 2026 in the same breeding territory they chose two years ago. “In the first weeks of the year, guirres spend almost the whole day choosing the cave they will use for breeding, bringing material to the nest and strengthening their bond through joint flights and frequent copulation,” explains Walo Moreno, the field technician who has spent fourteen years studying the guirre on the ground as part of the Monitoring Programme promoted by the Directorate-General for the Natural Environment of the Government of the Canary Islands, currently co-financed by the Canarias ERDF Programme 2021-2027 and scientifically advised by the Doñana Biological Station of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Incubation lasts 42 days and is the most delicate stage, shared almost equally by both members of the pair. The clutch consists of a maximum of two eggs. Noise caused by motor vehicles, dogs off the lead and other human activities is perceived by this animal as a disturbance, and it has a fatal consequence: it makes the guirres abandon the nest, leaving the clutch unprotected, with little chance of thriving without an adult to control its exposure to temperature changes and defend it from predators. The first three weeks after the brood hatches are equally delicate.
“We have to concentrate our efforts on avoiding disturbance during this critical period,” say the experts. To achieve that it is essential that, especially during the nesting season, we respect the signage, stay on the marked paths and enjoy nature in silence.” With the public’s cooperation, “we will be able to see the chick flying with its parents seventy days after hatching”.
“The guirre’s productivity rate is around 40%: out of every ten monitored pairs that start breeding, only four raise the chick successfully,” explains Walo Moreno. The causes of this low productivity are “multiple and insufficiently understood”, although human pressure in the breeding areas is one of the most significant factors. Thanks to the fact that the Government of the Canary Islands and the island Cabildos heeded the measures proposed by the research team that studied and diagnosed the guirre’s conservation status, the population of this bird is recovering, with 30 or 40 new individuals every year,” he adds.
The guirre is the only strictly carrion-eating raptor in the whole avifauna of the Canary archipelago, and the vernacular name given by the aboriginal Canarian population to the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus).
In 2002, a study led by the researcher José Antonio Donázar concluded that the Canarian population of the guirre was a new subspecies (Neophron percnopterus majorensis). The only vulture present in the archipelago and in the whole Macaronesian region “is morphologically and genetically different from any other equivalent population in the world”, with longer wings, a more robust build and a stronger, more elongated bill, adapted to the aridity of the islands.
This subspecies has undergone a significant recovery across its range, above all in Fuerteventura, where its population has quadrupled. In Lanzarote the recovery has been slower.
The importance of this bird can be seen in place names throughout the Canary Islands. In Lanzarote it gives its name to one of the Calderas Quemadas, an alignment of volcanoes that follows the direction of the fissure that gave rise to the historic Timanfaya eruption.