Vultures are one of the biggest birds around and very important scavenger. Many may think however that these large birds have no worries.
They also have things that could harm them. Meanwhile, these birds according to recent studies are among the endangered species in the ecosystem.
According to a report, the Asian vulture crisis of the 1990s saw the population of vultures around India drop from abundance to the edge of extinction within ten years.
This however was an alarm to the world on a possible catastrophic impact on the ecosystem if these birds eventually go on extinction.
A major threat to these birds has been poisoning and it is no longer news what danger this can mean to these ecologically important birds and the environment.
Meanwhile, in contemporary time there is still a lack of a consistent intergovernmental policy required to safeguard these cleaners of the environment.
According to a report published on Birdlife.org, while many vulture poisoning incidents are intentional, such as that which claimed the lives large numbers of Hooded Vultures in Guinea – Bissau, West Africa in 2020 and the poisoning that reduced the Asian Vulture by 99 percent, were purely accidental.
The report however revealed that a common non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used in livestock posed a great danger to vultures that feed on the bodies of cattle that die soon after being dosed. Meanwhile, a contaminated carcass can wipe out an entire flock of vultures according to the report.
Also, poachers in restricted game reserves have been named among vulture killers in recent times. The poachers who hunt elephants illegally often poison dead elephants after harvesting their tusks. This sadistic activity sees to the destruction of large flocks of scavenging vultures who feast on the carcasses.
To forestall the reckless destruction of migratory birds, several organisations including BirdLife International has been at the vanguard of advocating for a strong intergovernmental policy on the use of veterinary NSAIDs.
Thankfully, February 2020 saw the adoption of a resolution adopted by the thirteenth Conference of Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS COP13) that covered their use and regulation as never before, which is a life saver for African-Eurasian vultures.
