Overview
- The five-year-old female long-billed vulture X67 was one of 15 captive-bred birds released from Melghat on January 2, 2026 and fitted with blue leg rings and solar-powered tracking tags.
- X67 stayed near the Melghat release site for almost four months to acclimate and then dispersed from Melghat on May 28, 2026 before beginning its long journey.
- Over a 27-day movement the bird crossed Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, made stops at Satpura Tiger Reserve, the Bhopal region and Kuno National Park, and arrived at Ranthambore on Tuesday after covering about 3,334 kilometres.
- BNHS field biologists report X67 located food and survived without any supplementary feeding, with solar tags and leg rings providing continuous data on distance, safety and survival.
- BNHS says the route highlights tiger reserves and protected-area networks as key foraging and roosting corridors and the tracking result will guide future release site selection and protected-area management to bolster vulture recovery.