More than 600 vultures found dead in Guinea-Bissau

02/03/2020

Hundreds of vultures have been found dead in Guinea-Bissau over the past 10 days, according to the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF).

As of 28 February, the known death toll was placed at 648 – and this figure continues to rise in what represents a massive blow to the country's vulture populations.

Last week, an incident was reported in the eastern province of Bafatá, which was initially thought to have caused around 200 vulture deaths. However, the death toll subsequently increased substantially. Poisoning was initially thought to be the cause, given that this has become a frequent occurrence across Africa and is now recognised as posing the biggest threat to vultures around the continent.

André Botha, the Endangered Wildlife Trust Africa's Vultures for Africa Programme manager, said: "In recent years, we have unfortunately faced several incidents where hundreds of vultures died around a poisoned carcass, usually due to human-wildlife conflict with predators, we first thought this was such a case."

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Vulture population shows tentative signs of recovery in Pakistan

BY AGENCIES , (LAST UPDATED OCTOBER 31, 2019)

KARACHI: Once a prime candidate for extinction, the population of vultures in Pakistan has shown tentative signs of recovery in the past five years, but nature’s “garbage disposal” is still facing looming threats on several fronts, experts said.

The population of several species of vulture started declining in the mid-1990s due to the ingestion of livestock carcasses containing residues of deadly cattle drugs.

Apart from drugs, food shortages, and an increase in tree felling, especially those with vulture nests, have all been important contributors in the declining number of vultures.

The critically endangered oriental white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) have declined across most of their range by over 95% since the mid-1990s, according to a recent report published by the Pakistan chapter of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

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Nigeria risks epidemics as vultures go extinct

By Chidimma C. Okeke

 Published Date Sep 18, 2019 0:47 AM

Nigeria is losing free ecological services as vultures go extinct in the country. The carrion feeders are a vital part of the ecosystem. They provide important ecosystem services that contribute to human health and wellbeing.

These services include removing carcasses and other organic waste from the environment, thereby, reducing the spread of diseases and contamination of water supplies.

Vultures, despite these services they render naturally are, however, faced with general population decline worldwide with a seven per cent decline yearly for the past three decades

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list of threatened species said vultures are among the most threatened group of migratory birds in the world. As Nigeria joined the rest of the world to commemorate the International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD) on the first Saturday of September, a day set aside by the global body to highlight the importance of vultures and their conservation, it was observed that the birds are fast going into extinction.

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Endangered Vultures Killed for Rituals in Nigeria

ENUGU, NIGERIA - Across Nigeria, there's a rising demand for vultures, and poachers are driving the local population of four large vulture species to near extinction.

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation is now placing vulture preservation high on its agenda, hoping to revive the threatened population. Abidemi Balogun, a senior special conservation officer with the foundation's educational unit, is engaging with local communities where superstitions and folklore about the birds persist.

"Someone actually asked me how do they identity the evil ones because there's been a belief that vultures are evil birds," Balogun told VOA with a laugh.

She's been with the foundation for eight years and said vulture poaching was not taken seriously in the past.

Spiritual practices

She said that the birds aren't being hunted for consumption as much as they're being killed for spiritual practices. In 2017, the foundation conducted a market survey to see how the birds were traded.

"Some of the findings that we made is that the head is used for ritual purposes and the head is the most expensive part of it," she said.

In local markets, vulture feathers are sold for about 100 naira, or less than 50 cents. But the head can fetch up to 25,000 naira, or about $70.

In Nigeria's diverse cultural landscape, the beliefs around vultures vary widely. In the southwest, where they're called igún, vultures are seen as sacred in traditional spirituality. According to folklore, they can be used to communicate with the dead or to appease the gods in elaborate sacrificial ceremonies.

In northern Nigeria, they are consumed. But they're also sold by traders known as yan shinfida to be used in traditional medicine and spiritual healing.

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Up to 100 vulture deaths prevented by rapid response to poisoning

On Sunday morning, a wildlife ranger in Nairobi, Kenya discovered 20 dead and 5 critically ill vultures slumped around a poisoned hyena carcass. Despite these tragic casualties, a rapid response protocol set up with the help of BirdLife almost certainly saved the lives of many more.

On the morning of the 27th of January, Eric Ole Reson was on his routine patrol on the Northern border of the Masai Mara when he spotted a group of vultures struggling to fly. Concerned, he hurried towards them, and stumbled across a tragic scene: 20 vultures lay dead around a hyena carcass, all of them Globally Threatened species including the Lappet-faced Vulture (Endangered) and Rüppell's Vulture (Critically Endangered). Beside them, six more vultures thrashed about in a critically ill state.

But despite this horrifying diorama, Reson didn’t panic or despair – he took action immediately. He knew exactly what he needed to do thanks to Kenya’s Rapid Response Poisoning Protocol, set up last year by a collaboration between BirdLife partners and other Kenyan conservation organisations* to tackle the growing threat of vulture poisoning.

Reson works for the The Peregrine Fund and the Masai Mara Wildlife Conservancies Association, organisations who regularly patrol the area for signs of incidents just like these. Following protocol, Reson mobilized support from Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, members of the collaboration, who arrived on the scene in time to collect forensic samples and rescue the surviving birds. They were joined by nearby community members who had also been trained in the Rapid Response Poisoning Protocol.

5th February 2019

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Illegal poisoning ravages Balkan vulture populations

02/12/2018

An estimated 2,300 vultures have been poisoned across the Balkan Peninsula during the last 20 years, according to a recent study.

The review, published by the Balkan Vultures Poison Study, has revealed that 465 vultures have been confirmed as dying as a result of poisoning since 1998. Given that only 20 per cent of poisoning incidents are discovered and reported, the authors have concluded that the true number of deaths may exceed 2,300.

The study cross-examined poisoning incidents during the past 20 years, as well as relevant legislation and proposals for future anti-poison actions, concluding that low awareness of the issue from governmental institutions and law enforcement agencies constitute the main factor preventing progress in stamping out illegal poisoning. 

Europe is home to four different vulture species: Bearded, Cinereous, Egyptian and Griffon. In the Balkans, the former has virtually vanished, with Egyptian declining dramatically and Griffon having disappeared from most countries in the region. Illegal poisoning is the main factor behind these downward trends, though other issues – including electrocution and collision with electricity infrastructures, reduced food availability, habitat loss and direct persecution – remain severe threats.

In order to control species that are blamed for livestock and game losses, such as Eurasian Wolf, Golden Jackal and feral dogs, farmers and hunters lace animal remains with poisonous substances. Naturally, vultures are attracted to the carrion, upon which they feed, and are consequently poisoned. Despite being made illegal by the early 1990s, use of poison remains prevalent across the region as it is often viewed as a quick and affordable solution to the perceived predator problem.

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Study shows how vultures evesdrop to gather vital flight information

Social network helps birds pick best way of using thermal updrafts

Date: November 7, 2018

Source: Swansea University

A new study has revealed how vultures use their very own social networks to work out the best way to take advantage of thermal updrafts to help them fly vast distances.

The research, carried out by a team from Swansea University led by PhD student Hannah Williams, examined how the vultures seemed to make risky but efficient choices in flight when they observed the flight of other vultures in the network.

Their paper Social eavesdropping allows for a more risky gliding strategy by thermal soaring birds has just been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface and Hannah hopes it will help provide a better understanding about the strategies birds use to navigate the aerial landscape.

She said: "Thermal updrafts are chaotic in their occurrence, so it makes sense for these heavy birds to 'eavesdrop' on the movements of other birds to find thermals, just as human pilots do when gliding.

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New restrictions on vulture-killing drugs in Pakistan

15/06/2018

Vulture populations in South Asia have collapsed by over 95 per cent since the mid-1990s. The primary cause of this catastrophic decline, and still an ongoing threat, is the ingestion by vultures of livestock carcasses containing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), principally diclofenac. Although diclofenac was banned from veterinary use in Pakistan, India and Nepal in 2006, other NSAIDs such as aceclofenac and ketoprofen still pose a major threat to Critically Endangered vultures.

WWF-Pakistan and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in the UK have been partners on the Pakistan Vulture Restoration Project (PVRP) to conserve vultures in Pakistan for the past 12 years. The project consists of a vulture breeding centre in Punjab province and a community-led vulture safe zone in Sindh province, where some of Pakistan's last remaining colonies of Critically Endangered White-rumped and Slender-billed Vultures are found.

PVRP has continued lobbying for the removal of veterinary drugs which are unsafe for vultures. In a recent letter to the Department of Health for Sindh, the Secretary was urged to restrict the distribution of ketoprofen and aceclofenac in Sindh's Vulture Safe Zone. As a result, the Chief Drug Inspector of Sindh ordered all regional and district drug inspectors to restrict the use of these drugs.

Muhammad Jamshed Iqbal at WWF-Pakistan said: "NSAIDs such as ketoprofen and aceclofenac have proven to be fatal for Gyps vultures in clinical trials and their restriction in the Sindh will contribute significantly in the survival of the remaining populations of Gyps vultures in Pakistan."

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Vultures reveal critical Old World flyways

Date:  April 30, 2018

Source:  University of Utah

Summary:

Identifying bottlenecks -- i.e. places where birds concentrate on migration -- helps bird conservationists know what areas to focus on and get the most bang for their buck, since a large percentage of a species' population can pass through these small areas.

It's not easy to catch an Egyptian vulture. Evan Buechley knows. He's hunkered down near garbage dumps from Ethiopia to Armenia, waiting for the highly intelligent birds to trigger a harmless trap. But no matter how well he and other researchers hid the traps, he says, "somehow the birds could always sense that something was up."

Eventually Buechley, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Utah and HawkWatch International, and his colleagues caught and tagged a total of 45 vultures from 2012-2016. The Egyptian Vulture is an endangered species, and by tracking them Buechley and colleagues were able to learn more about where they eat, breed and migrate.

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Big game hunters in Africa urged to drop the lead to help save vultures

Lead bullet fragments in carcasses left by hunters are poisoning endangered African vultures, a new study has found

Date:  March 15, 2018

Source:  University of Cape Town

A third of all vultures caught and tested in the Botswana study showed elevated levels of lead in their blood, most likely due to ingesting lead bullet-contaminated flesh. Hunters' bullets shatter inside their prey and can then be absorbed into the blood stream of the vultures when they feed on these animals or their remains. This ingested lead is highly toxic to birds.

"We were all shocked by how widespread lead poisoning was for this population and just how clearly these elevated levels were associated with recreational hunting activity," said Dr Arjun Amar, Associate Professor from the University of Cape Town's FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, who supervised the research.

The study, published this week in the international journal Science of the Total Environment, is based on tests of nearly 600 critically endangered African White-backed Vultures. Higher lead levels were found in the blood of vultures in the hunting season and in hunting areas, suggesting that the source of the lead in their blood stream was lead bullets used for hunting.

"The only logical explanation for the patterns of lead poisoning we observed is if lead bullets were the source of this contamination" said the study's lead author Beckie Garbett, who conducted the research as part of her PhD.

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Captive-reared Critically Endangered vultures soon to be released in Nepal

8 Nov 2017

Conservationists are making great progress in removing vulture-killing drug diclofenac from Nepal, with vulture populations stabilising as a result. Now, in this safer environment, it’s almost time for six captive-reared White-rumped Vultures to venture out into the wild.

South Asian vultures have famously suffered devastating population declines in recent decades. For example, 99.9% of White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis were wiped out between 1992 and 2007. This was due to the use of diclofenac: an anti-inflammatory drug given to reduce pain in livestock, but deadly to vultures that subsequently feed on their carcasses. A ban on veterinary diclofenac in India, Nepal and Pakistan in 2006 and Bangladesh in 2010 has allowed vulture populations to stabilise and possibly start to recover in some areas.

However, five of South Asia’s nine vulture species remain Endangered or Critically Endangered; the misuse of human diclofenac to treat livestock, as well as the use of other vulture-toxic veterinary drugs, continues to threaten some South Asian vulture populations with extinction. BirdLife Partners are changing that, through a combination of advocacy, legislation and education.

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One big plan to save African-Eurasian vultures by 2029

International commitment is needed now from over 120 countries to ensure the recovery of 15 vulture species

By Shaun Hurrell

African-Eurasian Vultures are the most threatened group of terrestrial migratory birds on the planet. Many have extensive soaring migrations (and a Rüppell’s Vulture Gyps rueppelli was recorded as the world’s highest-flying bird when it collided with an airliner), and their massive ranges mean that their safety can only be guaranteed if many countries come together and agree on a plan for their protection. This is where BirdLife International’s work comes in, supported by Partners around the world, with the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) providing a key platform.

It’s a huge problem and a huge area, so we have made an appropriate plan: namely, the Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MsAP), developed by BirdLife, the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Vulture Specialist Group and Vulture Conservation Foundation, under the guidance of the CMS Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MOU), with input from numerous individual experts on vultures and their conservation.

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After the crash: how can we rebuild South Asia's vulture population?

31 Aug 2017

Conservationists from India and Nepal have come together to plan a transboundary, sustainable answer to the question: how can you improve the outlook of a bird family that has already suffered a population crash of 99%?

By Khima Nand Balodi

Asian vultures have undergone a catastrophic decline in recent decades, with populations crashing by as much as 99%. In India and Nepal, four of nine vulture species are Critically Endangered, largely as a result of poisoning by a drug commonly used to treat livestock, diclofenac.  Since 2006, diclofenac has been banned in these  countries for veterinary use, but it is still being purchased on the black market, and vultures are still struggling to rebound in the wake of their population crash. The Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP)  - an inititive co-created by BirdLife in 1985 - has funded projects in both Nepal, in 2010 and 2013, and India, in 2016, to improve the outlook for these overlooked species. In March this year, a CLP Learning Exchange brought a project team member from both countries together to share their knowledge.

Khima Nand Balodi, who led a project to assess the population status and threats facing vultures in Uttarakhand, India in 2016, visited Bhupal Nepali, who has worked to strengthen Vulture Safe Zones in Nawalparasi, and to enhance community-based conservation in western Nepal. Here, Khima shares his Learning Exchange experiences.

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26,000€ fine for electricity company for electrocution of vultures

A Spanish court in Albacete has confirmed recently, in a landmark case, that an electricity utility (Iberdrola) should pay a penalty of 26,000€ for the electrocution of 4 griffon vultures in Ossa de Montiel (Albacete) last year. In October 2016 the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development had fined the company 26,000€ because the line "had no mechanism to prevent electrocution".

The company then appealed to the court, which now confirmed the penalty. This is important because it confirms, in the eyes of the Spanish courts, civil liability for electrocution of wildlife.

Electrocution is one of the major threats affecting vultures worldwide, as it was clearly demonstrated in the Vulture multi-Species Action Plan (MsAP), an international action plan covering 15 old world-vultures in more than 120 range states. This umbrella new strategy for vultures - nature’s primary scavengers, providing indispensable ecological services as carrion feeders and disposers of disease-carrying carcasses, was developed by VCF, BirdLife International, and the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group under a contract from the Coordinating Unit of the Raptors MoU under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), and will be hopefully adopted in the CMS conference of parties this fall. The Vulture MsAP provides several solutions to minimize deaths by electrocution, including legal advocacy towards the type of civil liability now enforced in Spain.

There are relatively cheap and effective solutions readily available to insulate dangerous pylons, so this threat could easily be solved if electricity utilities, governments, and NGOs all work together.

7th August 2017

Source

Korat zoo breeding vultures to save them from extinction

NAKHON RATCHASIMA - Zoo keepers have begun a programme to breed vultures and return them to their natural habitat, with the species on the verge of extinction in Thailand.

Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo official Prasert Chanklang said on Wednesday that vultures have disappeared from the wild in Thailand due to changing geographic conditions becoming unfavourable for them. Use of pesticides and chemicals on farmland also drove them away.

Now, the species is to be seen only in zoos. Nakhon Ratchasima zoo has 7 vultures - 3 males and 4 females, he said. 

The zoo is trying to breed the large birds, with three pairs. One pair was seen building a nest, good news meaning that the birds were preparing to mate. Zoo staff were closely monitoring their behaviour. If the pair do mate and lay eggs it would be the first time the rare birds have been successfully bred in Thailand. 

If the breeding programme is successful, the vultures will eventually be released into their natural habitat, Mr Prasert said.

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Kenyan wind farm could wipe out critically endangered vultures

BirdLife International, Nature Kenya, Kenya Bird of Prey Trust and The Peregrine Fund have collectively expressed concern over a proposal to develop the Kipeto Wind Energy Project, in Kajiado County, Kenya. This is due to the fact that the proposed wind farm will be in close proximity to the nesting sites of two species of Critically Endangered vultures and also close to an important flyway for a vast numbers of migratory birds. 

Just 14 km from Kwenia cliffs – the third largest nesting site of Rüppell’s Vultures in Kenya – and 10 km from the White-backed Vulture colony, these wind turbine blades could severely impact these species, both on the edge of extinction. Recent surveys commissioned by the project developers show that collectively these two colonies regularly hold more than 80 pairs of nesting vultures and that both species frequently fly over and occasionally forage at the proposed wind farm site and would be at risk of colliding with wind turbines. 

The area has already seen the extinction of Endangered Egyptian Vultures, yet it still holds an impressive number of cliff-dwelling large falcons and Verreaux’s Eagles. The project location lies along the north-south ridge of the Rift Valley Escarpment, which is a prime location for migratory species including globally endangered Steppe Eagles as well as Amur Falcons, Eurasian Hobbys, Lesser Kestrels and White Storks. The site is unique for its density of raptors, and deserving of special protection status, particularly in recognition that African Vultures are vitally important “cleaners of the environment” that help prevent the spread of diseases. 

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