COVER PHOTOSKEVIN PENHALLOW, VALERIYA ANUFRIYEVA © SHUTTERSTOCK

VULTURE CARTOONS © BIRDORABLE

DESIGNED BYANDREA CANFORA

EDITORIAL BYSHAUN HURRELL, LUCA BONACCORSI, MASUMI GUDKA, KARIUKI NDANG’ANG’A,

ROGER SAFFORD, IAN BURFIELD, ANDRE BOTHA, NICK WILLIAMS

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACTBIRDLIFE-AFRICA@BIRDLIFE.ORG or MASUMI.GUDKA@BIRDLIFE.ORG

© BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL 2016

Healthy vultures = healthy people, saved from the spread of life-threatening diseases.Vultures save the African economy money due to their unique waste disposal services.It is a moral and social imperative to save them, we need to act now.

BirdLife is profiling the African vulture crisis and fighting to save them from extinction, for the benefit of natural ecosystems, economies and human health.

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DEVELOP & IMPLEMENT the Multi-Species Action Plan for African-Eurasian Vultures as mandated by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) Resolution 11.14.

IMPLEMENT the CMS Preventing Poisoning Guidelines which call specifically for:

Developing and enforcing appropriate legislation to control, ban or restrict the sale, storage, distribution, use and disposal of toxic chemicals used in the indiscriminate killing of wildlife.Introducing and enforcing penalties on those found guilty of wildlife poisoning events that reflect the serious nature of the crime and act as sufficient deter-rent to prevent the perpetration of such acts in future.

ENCOURAGE MULTI-SECTORAL, NATIONAL, REGIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION to address threats to vultures. This collaboration should target players in agrochemical and livestock sec-tors regarding poison baits, energy sectors regarding energy generation and transmission, and health sectors regarding disease transmission and traditional medicine, and trade in vulture body parts.

RAISE AWARENESS of the plight of vultures, their ecological importance and valuable ecosystem services, and propose solutions for African vulture conservation at the highest political levels both nationally and regionally.

WHATCANYOUDO

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CAN YOUIMAGINEAFRICA

WITHOUTVULTURES

AFRICA’S VULTURES COLLAPSE THE LASTAFRICAN VULTURE

POISONING

VULTURES ARE WORTH MILLIONS

1 Poisoned elephant carcass =up to 500 dead vultures per incident

WHAT THREATENS AFRICA’S VULTURES?

1988 1994 1996 19981990 1992 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 ????0.0

BirdLife International for the IUCN Red List; Ogada et al 2015. Last 30 years

POISONINGPoisoning as a resultof human-wildlifeconflict where vulturesare incidental victims.Intentional poisoning byivory poachers not wantingto be found by rangers.

A single vulture is worth over US $ 11,000dollars just for its cleaning services.

By halting the spread of disease, they are worth much, much more to governments in saved

health service costs, not to mention tourism, etc.

They reduce the spread of diseases like Anthrax,Rabies, Tuberculosis, Botulism, Brucellosis

They clean carcasses barebefore disease spores can form

BEARDED VULTUREGypaetus barbatus

LAPPET-FACED VULTURETorgos tracheliotos

HOODED VULTURENecrosyrtes monachus

WHITE-BACKED VULTUREGyps africanus

EGYPTIAN VULTURENeophron percnopterus

CAPE VULTUREGyps coprotheres

WHITE-HEADED VULTURETrigonoceps occipitalis

RÜPPELL'S VULTUREGyps rueppellii

NEAR THREATENED

ENDANGERED

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

ENDANGERED

ENDANGERED

IUCN RED LIST SCALE

VULNERABLE

CRITICALLY ENDANGEREDNEAR THREATENED

ENDANGERED

EXTINCT

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED

70%

80%

83%

90%

92%

92%

96%

97%

61% 9%

29% 1%

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LEGEND

ALL BIRDS GLOBALLY

AFRICA'S VULTURES

YEAR

0.0 EXTINCT

1.0 LEAST CONCERN

7 OF 11Africa’s vulture speciesare on the edge of extinction

VULTURES CLEAN UP CARCASSES

WITH VULTURES › ONE HOUR

WITHOUT VULTURES › A FEW DAYS

LEAST CONCERN1

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ELECTROCUTION& COLLISION

With poorly-planned powerlines,

windfarms and roads.Increasing threatwith investmentin development.

OTHER RECORDED KILLINGPeople are potentially

eating poisoned vultures.

PERSECUTIONFor body parts used in traditional medicine.Also involves the use of poison.

Percentages are only representative reasons for recorded deaths.Other important threats, as yet hard to quantify, such as habitat reduction,disturbance at nesting sites and reduced food availability are not illustrated.

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