Portugal still lacks a plan to bring back the bearded vulture

The bearded vulture, a bone-eating scavenger once present in Portugal's mountains, was lost during the 20th century to persecution, poisoning and the collapse of wild ungulate populations, and is now regionally extinct. While Alpine and Pyrenean reintroduction efforts have succeeded, restoring populations of dozens of birds since the 1980s, Portugal has no recovery plan, no habitat studies for candidate areas like the Douro Internacional, and is absent from a 2026 Iberian connectivity model for lack of field data. A 2025 Iberian strategy formally includes Portugal, but implementation — monitoring, revised action plans, funding — has stalled, leaving recolonisation dependent on rare, isolated incursions from Spain.