The subspecies Gypaetus barbatus barbatus has seen its territories reduced to the southern areas of the Palaearctic region and North Africa (Atlas mountains, island of Corsica, Alps, Balkans, island of Crete, Asia Minor, Middle East, Caucasus, Iran, Hindu Kush, Tian Shan, Altai, Pamir Meseta, Karakorum, Kuen Lun and the Himalaya).

   In the Iberian Peninsula, the current distribution has been relegated to the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenean area (21,000 km²), where a Spanish-French population survives, calculated in 2002, at 126 occupied territories (comprised of reproductive and non-reproductive specimens with territorial habits), of which 99 are established on the southern slope (Spain) and 59 of these in the Autonomous Community of Aragon (Pyrenean and Pre-Pyrenean mountains of Huesca and Zaragoza).

   With respect to the pre-adult population, in 2002 about 200 specimens were calculated for the whole of the Pyrenean chain, using the simultaneous annual census technique, carried out throughout the whole mountain range and in a coordinated fashion, in all the Autonomous Communities where the species is present and France, where Agents for the Protection of Nature (APN) actively take part together with technicians from the Government of Aragon and members of NGOs.