Background The bearded vulture, Gypaetus barbatus, is a highly specialised territorial scavenger at home in mountain areas with steep rocky cliffs for breeding. During the last two centuries, the bearded vulture population in Europe has suffered extremely severe decline. The bearded vulture is threatened by the illegal use of poison to exterminate wild dogs and wolves, collisions with electric cables, shooting and illegal hunting. The bearded vulture has disappeared from many of its historical mountain habitats in the Alps, Balkans, Carpathians, Cyprus and Sicily. The decline is continuing despite EU conservation efforts made over the last decade. The species has become extinct in mainland Greece and is seriously threatened in Corsica and Crete. The Pyrenean population, with Spain representing 73% of the 115 European pairs, is the only one undergoing positive demographic development. Thanks to two LIFE-Nature projects carried out in the Spanish Pyrenees, species dispersion has actually increased in the Picos de Europa in the Cantabrian mountains. Objectives The main objective was to encourage the expansion of the bearded vulture population in the Pyrenees, creating the environmental conditions needed for permanent establishment in the mountainous Picos de Europa area. Main activities planned were identifying the most appropriate areas for the species to settle, the detection and correction of dangerous electric cables, the creation and maintenance of four supplementary feeding stations and implementation of social attraction techniques with a view to fixing the floating population. In addition, all the individuals present in the area were to be monitored by satellite. These activities were to be accompanied by an extensive public awareness-raising campaign also targeting those most involved in the conservation of the species. Results The main objective of the project, the expansion of the Pyrenean population of the bearded vulture, was achieved. This created the environmental pre-conditions needed for the species’ permanent establishment in the Picos de Europa mountainous area. The main goals achieved were: - Identification of the most appropriate species settlement areas, including an excellent study of the species habitat in Picos de Europa - Detection and correction of dangerous electric power lines. - Creation and maintenance of four supplementary feeding stations - Implementation of social attraction techniques aimed at fixing the floating population - Building artificial nests with dummy adults to increase site social attractiveness and promote bird settlement - Awareness raising campaign. Satellite monitoring of bearded vultures as well as of the griffon vulture and raven did not prove possible.