The southern African population of Bearded Vultures Gypaetus barbatus has declined rapidly and it is threatened with extinction. In response to this decline and the additional threats of wind farm developments in the core of the species’ range, it has been proposed to establish a reintroduced population within their historic South African range as insurance against regional extinction. To facilitate such a reintroduction, we used Maximum Entropy Modelling based on suitable nesting habitat to identify and define five potential reintroduction sites. We then compared the suitability of these sites based on the quantification of various threats and benefits within each site. The two highest-ranking sites were located mostly in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. We then compared different release strategies, using a Population Viability Analysis, to determine which approach would be most likely to be successful (defined as >34 individuals after 30 years). These models suggest that establishing a captive breeding programme and releasing captive-bred young would lower failure rates to 25.5–49.8%, compared with the direct releases of wild taken fledglings, without a supporting captive breeding programme (78.3–95.7%). Our models also suggest that even in the presence of high mortality rates at the reintroduction site, such a reintroduction would still be a worthwhile project, because it reduces the probability of extinction of the southern African population by approximately 30% over a 50-year period.

南部非洲有胡子的秃鹰Gypaetus barbatus已经迅速下降，并面临灭绝的威胁。为了应对这种下降以及该物种范围核心的风电场发展带来的其他威胁，有人提议在其历史悠久的南非范围内重新引入种群，以作为防止区域灭绝的保证。为了促进这种重新引入，我们基于适合的筑巢生境使用了最大熵模型来识别和定义五个潜在的重新引入位点。然后，我们基于对每个站点内各种威胁和利益的量化，比较了这些站点的适用性。排名最高的两个站点主要位于南非的东开普省。然后，我们使用种群生存力分析比较了不同的释放策略，确定哪种方法最有可能成功（定义为30年后> 34个人）。这些模型表明，与没有支持圈养繁殖计划的直接释放的野生幼雏相比，建立圈养繁殖计划并释放圈养的幼鸟的失效率降低到25.5–49.8％。我们的模型还表明，即使在重新引入地点存在高死亡率的情况下，这样的重新引入仍将是一个值得进行的项目，因为它在50年的时间里使南部非洲人口灭绝的可能性降低了约30％ 。与没有支持的圈养繁殖计划的野生捕捞幼鸟的直接释放相比（78.3–95.7％）。我们的模型还表明，即使在重新引入地点存在高死亡率的情况下，这样的重新引入仍将是一个值得进行的项目，因为它在50年的时间里使南部非洲人口灭绝的可能性降低了约30％ 。与没有支持的圈养繁殖计划的野生捕捞幼鸟的直接释放相比（78.3–95.7％）。我们的模型还表明，即使在重新引入地点存在高死亡率的情况下，这样的重新引入仍将是一个值得进行的项目，因为它在50年的时间里使南部非洲人口灭绝的可能性降低了约30％ 。