Vultures Poisoning

Vulture declines are uniquely problematic for socioecological systems because they are nature's most important scavengers. Intentional and unintentional poisoning, human-wildlife conflict, energy infrastructure, belief-based use, and illegal hunting activities remain threats to vulture populations across Africa. Conservation stakeholders have identified evidence that a number of vulture species in particular ecosystems are being systematically targeted by poisoning with potentially significant effects on human, wildlife and ecosystem health. We explored the extent to which an interdisciplinary expert-team approach linking conservation and criminology could help inform efforts to prevent poisoning of Africa's vultures. We used the case of illegal vulture poisoning and conservation in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA), a known poisoning site, as an exemplar. We used an interdisciplinary framework, conservation criminology, to guide a desk assessment of how the local environment may create opportunities for illegal poisoning. Our assessment was conducted as a science team and included multiple iterations and structured discourse. The assessment identifies different elements of vulture poisoning and the opportunity factors that can both underly the problem and inform prevention strategies and tactics. We discuss controlling tools and weapons, extending local guardianship, denying benefits, reducing frustration and stress, and assisting compliance to help prevent illegal poisoning. Results provide insights into harm prevention using evidence-based theory and illustrate the positive potential of interdisciplinary team science for vulture conservation. With additional application, monitoring and evaluation, strategies and tactics explored in this desk assessment may be revised and implemented and portend other benefits for vulture conservation beyond poisoning; the spread of beneficial influence could be a welcome force multiplier for this important scavenger guild.

Developing an effective conservation strategy for a critically endangered species relies on identifying the most pressing
threats to the species. One approach to elucidate these threats for a long-lived animal with high territorial fidelity is to
identify factors associatedwith territorial abandonment. The Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) has declined dramatically
in southern Africa over the past few decades, with nearly 50% of known territories being abandoned. In this study we
examine the evidence for 3 hypotheses: that territorial abandonment was associated with (1) human impact, (2) food
availability, or (3) climate change, or a combination of these.Model selection was used to determine the relative importance
of 7 covariates within the home range of an adult pair, an area of 10 km radius (314 km2) around each nest. Our analyses
provided strongest support for the human impact hypothesis, with abandonmentmore likely in territories withmore power
lines and higher densities of human settlements. Additionally, within Lesotho, southern Africa, there was some support for
the food shortage hypothesis, with territories more likely to have remained occupied where they had a greater number of
feeding sites within close proximity. Our data provided no support for the hypothesis that climate change may be driving
abandonment through a direct impact of elevation or nest site aspect.Our results are in accordance with themain causes of
mortality: poisoning and power line collisions. We suggest that conservation measures should focus on limiting the
development of further human settlements and power lines within 10 km of occupied territories, applying mitigation
measures to existing power lines and increasing law enforcement and education in areas still occupied by the species.

In Morocco, during the 20th century and even currently has been a strong decline and extinction process of many mammalian predators and raptors, which could be linked to the use of poison. Northern Morocco is a very important area for endangered raptors, since it is the main migratory route of the Western Paleartic for several species (Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus and Eurasian Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus), and a dispersal area for endangered Iberian populations of Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus and Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti. On the other hand, there might be still two relict extant populations of Red Kite (Milvus milvus) and Egyptian Vulture.
The Andalusian Anti Poisoning Programme has undergone an initiative (funded by Andalusian Government through the E.U. POCTEFEX project) to evaluate the importance of vulture-poisoning locally through bibliographical review, fieldwork and enquiries addressed to local stakeholders (environmental authorities, protected areas managers, veterinary service, environmental NGOs, hunters and hunters associations, livestock managers and shepherds, etc.). The project aims to assess the existence of poisoning as a real wildlife threat and what motivations and causes may lead poisoning in this region. The outputs will allow decision-making process to minimize the impact of this practice on endangered wildlife in this region, if needed.
Preliminary results obtained, indicate that wildlife poisoning do not seem to be a major concern at the time being, though it could be potentially harmful for relict populations of Egyptian Vulture and Red Kite. Local poisoning detected was to target Wild Board (Sus scrofa) and Golden Jackal (Canis aureus).

Africa presently faces a little-known, poorly understood, and often-ignored wildlife crisis of untold consequences-the demise of its vultures. Vulture populations are generally declining very rapidly in Africa, and several once common species are currently on the verge of extinction. Poison is driving Africa´s vultures toward extinction, but the drivers, the substances used, modus operandi and availability of data regarding poisoning incidents all vary significantly across the continent. Three main priorities were identified at an international workshop to fight this threat: 1) Document the situation better – both in terms of vulture decline rates, and the poisoning incidents themselves (frequency and location), also the substances, methods and networks used, and motivations, to design intervention strategies; 2) Involve relevant government agencies in collaboration with conservationists, vulture experts, chemists/analysts, enforcement agencies and other relevant stakeholders, to rapidly and decisively change the path toward vulture extinction; 3) Robust research is required to alert authorities to the human health and sanitary consequences of vulture poisoning – vultures are not the sole victims here, humans are certainly affected too, either because they eat deliberately poisoned fish and wildlife, including vultures, as well as contaminated crops, or because sanitation around villages deteriorates with the disappearance of these highly effective scavengers, in parallel to the explosion of feral dog populations, and the increase of diseases they carry, including rabies.

SummaryThe Egyptian Vulture has been classified as ‘Endangered’ due to a rapid population decline in India and long term declines in Europe and Africa. Although the species has been reported to be declining in Eastern Europe, no quantitative assessment of the magnitude or the causes for population declines are available. We used monitoring data from the Balkan Peninsula to estimate changes in population size and extent of occurrence of Egyptian Vultures between 1980 and 2013. We quantified population trends in three countries (Bulgaria, Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic [FYR] of Macedonia) to assess whether population declines are similar within the Balkan range states. We found a rapid and consistent decline of the Egyptian Vulture population that was largely similar among the three countries (λ = 0.940 in FYR of Macedonia, 0.951 in Bulgaria, 0.920 in Greece). As a consequence of population declines, the breeding range of Egyptian Vultures has contracted and the population in...

During a 2008 citywide art exhibition, visitors to the Delhi National Museum of Natural History were directed around specimens of the country’s flora, fauna, and mineral wealth, to a single aging glass booth containing two dusty figures.  Here, onlookers were presented with the “readymade” display of taxidermied vultures that were posed in the process of ripping the last fragments of flesh from a deer in front of a pasty desert diorama.  Ravi Agarwal, the artist and environmental activist responsible for this “readymade” entitled his piece “Extinct?”.  This paper will examine both Agarwal’s art intervention in the Natural History Museum as well as its accompanying “winged” installation that was situated in the nearby Mandi House roundabout.  Broadly speaking, I will argue that Agarwal’s work generates its meaning by placing into mocking conflict three different time periods within modern Indian history – the colonial era, the national era, and the era of globalization.  In this respect I will trace how, through his employment of the taxidermied vultures, Agarwal sets the deliberate policies of environmental exploitation and degradation put in place by the British during colonialism against the catastrophic results of the current neo-liberal practices.  Here, special attention will be focused on the near mass extinction of vultures within India today.  I will then continue by shifting my discussion to the phenomenon of India’s movement of “bourgeois environmentalism” and how it relates to, and frames, the reception of both the 48 Degrees Exhibition and Agarwal’s work.  My analysis will also approach Agarwal’s art from several critical perspectives.  On the one hand, I will argue that his use of the figure of the vulture, framed within the context of environmental catastrophe, represents an explicit (Benjamin-like) attempt to problematize both modernity and the concept of progress.  Somewhat more diffusely, I will follow the motif of “living substance,” or otherwise put “flesh,” as it manifests within Agarwal’s art in the guise of taxidermy.  Finally, Agarwal’s work will also be considered in light of several pieces from the environmentally focused practice of the American artist Mark Dion.  Paper is available through Art Journal - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00043249.2018.1495531?journalCode=rcaj20

In Morocco, during the 20th century and even currently has been a strong decline and extinction process of many mammalian predators and raptors, which could be linked to the use of poison. Northern Morocco is a very important area for endangered raptors, since it is the main migratory route of the Western Paleartic for several species (Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus and Eurasian Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus), and a dispersal area for endangered Iberian populations of Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus and Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti. On the other hand, there might be still two relict extant populations of Red Kite (Milvus milvus) and Egyptian Vulture.
The Andalusian Anti Poisoning Programme has undergone an initiative (funded by Andalusian Government through the E.U. POCTEFEX project) to evaluate the importance of vulture-poisoning locally through bibliographical review, fieldwork and enquiries addressed to local stakeholders (environmental authorities, protected areas managers, veterinary service, environmental NGOs, hunters and hunters associations, livestock managers and shepherds, etc.). The project aims to assess the existence of poisoning as a real wildlife threat and what motivations and causes may lead poisoning in this region. The outputs will allow decision-making process to minimize the impact of this practice on endangered wildlife in this region, if needed.
Preliminary results obtained, indicate that wildlife poisoning do not seem to be a major concern at the time being, though it could be potentially harmful for relict populations of Egyptian Vulture and Red Kite. Local poisoning detected was to target Wild Board (Sus scrofa) and Golden Jackal (Canis aureus)

SummaryThe Egyptian Vulture has been classified as ‘Endangered’ due to a rapid population decline in India and long term declines in Europe and Africa. Although the species has been reported to be declining in Eastern Europe, no quantitative assessment of the magnitude or the causes for population declines are available. We used monitoring data from the Balkan Peninsula to estimate changes in population size and extent of occurrence of Egyptian Vultures between 1980 and 2013. We quantified population trends in three countries (Bulgaria, Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic [FYR] of Macedonia) to assess whether population declines are similar within the Balkan range states. We found a rapid and consistent decline of the Egyptian Vulture population that was largely similar among the three countries (λ = 0.940 in FYR of Macedonia, 0.951 in Bulgaria, 0.920 in Greece). As a consequence of population declines, the breeding range of Egyptian Vultures has contracted and the population in...

SummaryThe Egyptian Vulture has been classified as ‘Endangered’ due to a rapid population decline in India and long term declines in Europe and Africa. Although the species has been reported to be declining in Eastern Europe, no quantitative assessment of the magnitude or the causes for population declines are available. We used monitoring data from the Balkan Peninsula to estimate changes in population size and extent of occurrence of Egyptian Vultures between 1980 and 2013. We quantified population trends in three countries (Bulgaria, Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic [FYR] of Macedonia) to assess whether population declines are similar within the Balkan range states. We found a rapid and consistent decline of the Egyptian Vulture population that was largely similar among the three countries (λ = 0.940 in FYR of Macedonia, 0.951 in Bulgaria, 0.920 in Greece). As a consequence of population declines, the breeding range of Egyptian Vultures has contracted and the population in...

Abstract Vulture declines are uniquely problematic for socio-ecological systems because they are nature’s most important scavengers. Intentional and unintentional poisoning, human-wildlife conflict, energy infrastructure, belief-based use, and illegal hunting activities remain threats to vulture populations across Africa. Conservation stakeholders have identified evidence that a number of vulture species in particular ecosystems are being systematically targeted by poisoning with potentially significant effects on human, wildlife, and ecosystem health. We explored the extent to which an interdisciplinary, expert team-based approach linking conservation and criminology could help inform efforts to prevent poisoning of Africa’s vultures. We used the case of illegal vulture poisoning and conservation in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA), a known poisoning site, as an exemplar. We used an interdisciplinary framework, conservation criminology, to guide a desk assessment of how the local environment may create opportunities for illegal poisoning. Our assessment was conducted as a science team and included multiple iterations and structured discourse. The assessment identifies different elements of vulture poisoning and the opportunity factors that can both underly the problem and inform prevention strategies and tactics. We discuss controlling tools and weapons, extending local guardianship, denying benefits, reducing frustration and stress, and assisting compliance to help prevent illegal poisoning. Results provide insights into harm prevention using evidence-based theory and illustrate the positive potential of interdisciplinary team science for vulture conservation. With additional application, monitoring and evaluation, strategies and tactics explored in this desk assessment may be revised and implemented and portend other benefits for vulture conservation beyond poisoning; the spread of beneficial influence could be a welcome force multiplier for this important scavenger guild.

The Egyptian Vulture has been classified as ‘Endangered’ due to a rapid population decline in India and long term declines in Europe and Africa. Although the species has been reported to be declining in Eastern Europe, no quantitative assessment of the magnitude or the causes for population declines are available. We used monitoring data from the Balkan Peninsula to estimate changes in population size and extent of occurrence of Egyptian Vultures between 1980 and 2013. We quantified population trends in three countries (Bulgaria, Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic [FYR] of Macedonia) to assess whether population declines are similar within the Balkan range states. We found a rapid and consistent decline of the Egyptian Vulture population that was largely similar among the three countries (λ = 0.940 in FYR of Macedonia, 0.951 in Bulgaria, 0.920 in Greece). As a consequence of population declines, the breeding range of Egyptian Vultures has contracted and the population in the Ba...