An Italian organisation is offering a €4,000 reward for information that sheds light on the disappearance of a juvenile Egyptian vulture or the person believed to have shot it. 

The vulture, named Isabel, disappeared as she migrated over Malta on September 14. She was just three months old and formed part of an Italian satellite tracking programme being run by the Centre for Threatened Raptors in Italy.

According to data from a tracker that she was fitted with, the vulture vanished close to Dingli Cliffs between 7.22pm and 7.44pm.

Searches for the bird’s carcass yielded nothing and the vulture is believed to have been shot and killed by a poacher.

Isabel the vulture as a newborn. Photo: CERM/G. Ceccolini

Vultures are protected by law and shooting or trapping them is a crime.

CERM, which invested considerable money in the bird as part of its tracking programme, is now offering a €4,000 reward for any information that leads to the recovery of the bird’s body or identification of the poacher responsible.

“In Italy the species is on the brink of extinction and the yearly release of captive-bred Egyptian Vultures is a very important action in order to restock the Italian population,” CERM said in a statement.

Anyone who can help the CERM Association can write to ricerca.isabel@gmail.com. The association said anonymity would be ensured.