The domestic population of griffon vultures, which according to regular monitoring data on Cres, Krk, Plavnik and Prvić numbers 125 pairs, welcomed a new addition, and thanks to the involvement of many nature lovers, the bird was named and is now called – Grif.

In our campaign to name the griffon vulture, which is still in its nest on the cliff of Kvarner island of Plavnik, followers of the Biom’s Facebook page and readers of Vau Mijau Jutarnji gave 124 valuable suggestions. Our jury shortlisted three names from the proposed ones – Grif, Pino and Orel – after which voting was opened via Biom’s website.

With an overwhelming majority of votes (59%), the Griffon vulture nestling was named Grif, which comes from the English name of this bird species – Griffon vulture. The name sounds equally good for male and female individuals, which is a convenient circumstance since it is not possible to know the sex of the bird at this time. As the phrase “to catch a grif” is also used in the Croatian language, the name also contains the desire for the bird to immediately start well in life, i.e. to firmly grasp the string and quickly fly through the sky above Kvarner. Until then, mom Inge and dad Dagmar will take care of him.

The name Pino, proposed after Capes Veli and Mali Pin on Plavnik island, won 26.1% of your votes. The third nominated name was Orel and it won 14.9% of the votes, and it is interesting that on Cres island, the habitat of Griffon vultures, the local name for the vulture is “orel”, and there is a village Orlec located on the island.

We thank everyone for participating in this campaign and invite you to follow the further development of Grif! As we announced, the prize packages of the LIFE SUPport project go to those who nominated names in the finals.

Translated by Tihana Goričnik