As scavengers, Griffon vultures are highly adept at finding dead animals. Whether it’s a dead sheep, intestines of hunted game, or even whole shot animal that the hunter was unable to collect because it escaped or was impossible to reach on rough terrain.
Griffon vultures are temperamental birds. During feeding they land on a carcass and fight each other for every bite. Since they have blunt beaks, they must start eating from where the carcass is already opened. With shot game, the wound channel created by bullet is a perfect entry point. If the bullet is made of lead, it explodes and spreads fragments uncontrollably inside the body. Vultures find these shot animals and consume some of that lead, even taking it to their nest and young. Lead acutely and chronically poisons birds. It sounds brutal but lead poisoning from hunting ammunition is one of the biggest threats to Griffon vultures in Croatia, as well as to White-tailed eagles and Golden eagles.
This was the topic of the lead free ammo workshop that was held in Kampor hunting lodge on Rab Island on 6th November 2025. During the workshop we presented the LIFE SUPport project and previous actions to distribute lead free ammo to the hunting community in the project area of Kvarner islands.
On this occasion, bloodwork analysis of Kvarner Griffon vultures, which indicated a
high level of lead in the environment, was presented. Vedran Slijepčević PhD, expert in the field of hunting and veterinary science, and an experienced hunter himself, spoke on the harmfulness of lead and benefits of using lead free ammo as well as its practical uses. Test results of lead free ammo on Krk, Cres, and Učka show more than 95% of hunters are satisfied with lead free ammo.
As part of the workshop 19 hunters from hunting associations “Kunić” Rab and “Golub” Kampor-Rab who have not used lead-free ammo until now were also included in the ongoing testing. This brings the total number of hunters taking part in the lead free ammo testing within the project to 148.
