Vultures are an ecologically vital group of birds that face a range of threats in many areas that they occur. Populations of many species are under pressure and some species are facing extinction.

This day has grown from Vulture Awareness Days run by the Birds of Prey Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in England, who decided to work together and expand the initiative into an international event.

It is now recognised that a co-ordinated international day will publicise the conservation of vultures to a wider audience and highlight the important work being carried out by the world’s vulture conservationists.

Threats to Vultures

Vultures are large, impressive birds, but many birders don’t realize that these raptors face many insidious threats to their survival. Of the 23 vulture species in the world, 14 are listed as threatened or endangered, and without proper conservation initiatives, their numbers will continue to decrease drastically. Understanding the threats they face is the first step toward finding ways to help vultures.

Because vultures eat carrion, it is often mistakenly assumed that they are “living garbage disposals” that can make do on any source of food and have very few hazards they face. In reality, however, vultures and condors face a wide range of very serious threats, including:

Poison

Vultures feed on the deceased carcasses of many different types of animals, but larger herbivores such as cattle, deer and similar animals are their most common food source. If those animals are contaminated with pesticide, herbicide, medication or other toxins, the vultures can be severely affected. That contamination may happen after the animal has died – a pesticide application over a field where an animal has died or a carcass deliberately poisoned to kill rodents – or could have caused the animal’s death, such as consumption of herbicides or pesticides. In India, several medications and vitamins used to treat cattle have proven fatal to vultures.

Lead

Lead poisoning has dramatically impacted many vulture species and continues to be a threat to birds such as the California condor, one of the most severely endangered birds in the world. When a hunter uses lead ammunition but either discards the animal’s entrails without removing the lead fragments, or else never recovers the animal, that lead can be consumed by vultures. Lead toxicity builds up in the birds’ tissues and can cause ongoing health deterioration that leads to a slow, painful death.

Persecution

Many cultures have superstitions about vultures, such as the birds being harbingers of death, or else people may mistakenly believe the birds are a threat to healthy livestock. While vultures actually prevent deaths by eliminating carcasses that could harbor infectious diseases and they will not attack healthy livestock, many people still illegally hunt the birds or drive them away from food sources. The birds may also be poached as trophies or for illegal feather trading.