Slaughtered Vultures

BirdLife International played a pivotal role in identifying diclofenac as the veterinary drug-culprit responsible for vulture deaths in Asia and for some time now the organisation has been alerting the world to problems faced by vultures in Africa. The declines in populations are as staggering as they are depressing. As examples, in just 30 years vulture numbers in West Africa have declined by 95% outside protected areas. Over the same period more than half the vulture population in Kenya’s Masai Mara has died out. Hooded Vultures, traditionally widespread and commensal with people, have declined by 62% across Africa as a whole since the 1970s, and more significantly than that in some areas.

Vultures are nature’s clean-up crew. These Hooded Vultures, photographed in The Gambia, are frontline workers when it comes to sanitising the African environment. Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd

Without exception vulture downfall is a direct consequence of human actions. Poisoning – intentional and unintended – plays a part of course. Poachers poison game carcasses to prevent circling vultures alerting the authorities to their activities; livestock owners poison corpses to kill ‘predators’ and vultures inadvertently die too. Astonishingly in this day and age, they are also killed for their body parts, which feature in ‘traditional’ medicines. In an increasingly informed and enlightened world this tragic reality is even more depressing because, at a time of Covid-19 crisis, the virtues of scientific evidence-based medicine are plain to see; and the dangers and pointlessness of myth-based medicine is equally obvious. For many, the pandemic has been a time of introspection and a cause for greater positive engagement with, and appreciation of, the environment and all the species with which we share Planet Earth. Sadly, not all fellow humans share this outlook.

Gambian Hooded Vultures, showing an affectionate and tender side to their nature. Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd

BirdLife International has received information from the West African Bird Study Association about a shocking incident in The Gambia:

-          On Monday 12 October 2020, 49 Hooded Vultures and 1 White-backed Vulture (both Critically Endangered) were found dead at the Gunjur Slaughterhouse.

-          Poisoning is suspected as the cause and more vultures are likely to have died away from the site.

-          30 had been decapitated. Those that had not been beheaded were either inaccessible or not easily found; the assumption is that decapitation was the intended fate for all the casualties.

-          It indicates killing for belief-based ‘medicinal’ use. Sadly, this is now one of the main drivers of poisoning incidents in West Africa; this will not be an isolated incident and is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, and part of a larger-scale trade.

-          Samples have been collected and preserved. To continue the investigation, it is vital to confirm poisoning as the cause of death, and identify the agent involved. This requires lab-based toxicology analysis, which can be undertaken in Dakar, Senegal.

Birds on the Brink has donated £1,000 to help kickstart the investigation process and analysis. Visit the BirdLife International website page devoted to African Vultures to find out more and make your own donation.

25 years ago, I remember Gambian skies darkening with the number of vultures on the wing. Today it is a different matter, set to get worse unless humanity can be made to appreciate the value of scavengers and the utter pointlessness of ‘traditional’ medicines that involve vulture spare parts. Paul Sterry/Nature Photographers Ltd