Photo 1. A book for the drawings of children, titled “The Story of the Griffon Vulture” (Photo by Dino Grozić)

RENOVATED EXHIBITION AT THE BELI VISITOR CENTRE

The renovated exhibition at the Beli Visitor Centre contains exhibits explaining the life of the griffon vultures of Cres Island and the ethno heritage of Tramuntana. The tour begins in the Griffon Vulture Room, where we can learn interesting facts about griffon vultures and how people and nature coexist on Cres Island, the latter also being the focus of the Ethnological Room. The space in the corridor houses the exhibition “The Floral Richness of Cres Island”, which we intend to change and enrich with new exhibits, on a regular basis.

By circling through the rooms, visitors first learn about the life cycle of the griffon vulture, from its hatching stage across its wandering the wide expanses of Eurasia to its return back to the cliffs of Cres Island to build a nest.

The multimedia part of the Griffon Vulture Room portrays the flight of the griffon vulture, its sharp eyesight into the distance, changes in its range through history, and migration maps, among other things, while the “What Do We Know About the Griffon Vulture” Quiz helps us to learn new facts and gain new insights. Particularly interesting is the silhouette of a griffon vulture with its wings spread, against which visitors can stand to compare their size to that of a spread-winged vulture.

Direct video transmission from the flight aviary/recovery cage for griffon vultures, which is part of the Centre, enables us to see what the recovering vultures are doing prior to their release into nature.

Next we come to the Ethno Room and the display titled “In Co-existence”, which tells us of the connection between the life of local shepherds and farmer workers and their traditional way of co-existence with nature. In the centre of the room is a semi-circular “table” focusing on life with the Cres sheep, a breed of Pramenka sheep typical of Cres Island (Photo 2).

Link to a related topic: http://www.ju-priroda.hr/supovi.asp?iddb=281

Photo 2. Ethnological exhibition with “round table” displaying exhibits relating to the sheep of Cres (Photo by Dino Grozić)