Enormous wing spans and their majestic gliding make golden eagles, bearded vultures, griffon vultures and cinereous vultures some of the most impressive animals in the Alps. Their flight, extraordinary vision and ability to survive even in often inhospitable conditions in the mountains have always commanded people's admiration.
With regard to the large birds of prey i. e. the bearded vulture, griffon vulture and cinereous vulture along with the golden eagle, the Hohe Tauern National Park has a special standing in Austria.
In the Rauris Kruml valley, the first young bearded vultures were released as part of the Alps-wide bearded vulture reintroduction project, and since 2010 the first successful bearded vulture hatchings have been recorded in Austria. The core of the currently small Austrian bearded vulture population can be found here near Pöllautal (Pöllau valley - Carinthia) and Gschlösstal (Gschlöss valley -Tyrol). In the national park the only free-flying griffon vultures in Austria can be observed regularly during the Alpine farming season. Since 2013, cinereous vultures can be observed sporadically in the Hohe Tauern along with the griffon vultures. Furthermore, the Hohe Tauern are an important core habitat for golden eagles in the Austrian Alps. Currently, about 40 pairs of golden eagles breed here. This means that around 15 percent of Austria's total number of golden eagles live here.
Monitoring measures have been implemented for each species of these large birds of prey.