The Vultures are circling
Vultures are not the most popular birds, they don't have colourful plumage or a beautiful song but as everyone should know you don't judge a book by its cover, Vultures are extremely important to their ecosystems and it's about time more people learnt about them and the threats they are facing.
Vulture is a title given to a large number of birds, Vultures can be split into two groups New world and Old world.
New world Vultures are part of the Cathartidae family that live in North, Central and South Americas, Old world Vultures are part of the Accipitridae family and are found in the rest of the world in places like Europe, Africa and Asia, The only continents you won't find Vultures are Australia and Antarctica.
Vultures vary a lot from species to species but there are some similarities between them which help with the Vultures lifestyle, a common characteristic of Vultures is a bald head and neck which is thought to have adapted to help their feeding behaviours as feathers would be damaged or just get in the way as the vulture stuck its head inside a body to eat. Also the gastric acid of the Vultures stomach is extremely strong which allows them to eat rotting meat without getting ill as the acid destroys all the harmful bacteria in its food.
All Vultures are scavengers by nature which is part of the reason they have such a bad reputation and is why whenever you see one in media they are most likely circling high in the sky above nearly dead people and animals. Scavengers like Vultures have a very important role in their ecosystems, they play the part of bin men of the wild. Instead of hunting prey Vultures feed on leftovers killed by predators like Lions, Wolves or Hyena. Whilst there are other scavengers which take part in eating carrion (dead bodies) Vultures are the biggest carrion eaters, eating up to 70% of carrion in Africa alone. Carrion removal maybe not seem like an important role since they don't directly affect the ecosystem but it is, dead animals that are not eaten by Vultures become a breeding ground for bacteria and diseases.
These diseases can spread to any animals in the vicinity of the rotting body, and some rotting bodies have been found to infect water supplies causing illness in humans population of less developed nations were water filtration isn't common or as effective as it is in the rest of the world. The strong stomach acid of the Vultures is what separates them from other scavengers allowing them to safely eat most rotten animals preventing the bacteria from spreading and causing harm.
Currently there is a decline in the population of Vultures and their are many reasons for this,
A lot of the old territories of Vultures is in the process of being converted into or is now farmland, farm animals are the lifeblood of most of these communities and so farmers take good care of their animals providing food, water and medicine. There is a old saying that the difference between medicine and poison is the dosage, this is clearly shown in the vultures that feed on any of these treated animals. Some medicine can be toxic to Vultures causing them to become sick and die, it is important to note that the Vultures will not have killed this animals themselves but will feed on them if they have already died, this may have lead some farmers to think that Vultures prey on their livestock or are omens of bad luck.
Also wherever there are farms there are pests and pest control, Vultures are misunderstood and are sometimes seen as pests by farmers and are intentionally poisoned in an attempt to protect their animals. The conversion of wild land into farmland has also decreased the amount of wild animals in these area, this has had the knock on effect of decreasing the food available to Vultures in these areas which obviously prevents the number of Vultures from growing.
Thankfully there are conservation efforts worldwide to help save the Vultures, Captive breeding and rehabilitation programs are helping to increase the numbers of Vultures and try to keep these number up by helping individual vultures that are injured or poisoned.
Vultures are an amazing animal and a group which need our help as more and more vultures die every day, for example just recently on the 25th of February the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) reported that 104 vultures were affected and over 80 of which were killed in africa from a single intentional poisoning event .
If these animals don't begin to increase in number it could have a devastating effect on ecosystems worldwide and change the face of wildlife as we know it.
They serve as a reminder that there are many animals that need our help not just the cute fuzzy ones we are all familiar with.
If you want to learn more or want to help out with conservation efforts then I have left a few links below. Or if you enjoy our content check out our other blog posts and subscribe.
https://www.4vultures.org/life-projects/
http://www.tusk.org/vulture-conservation-project
https://www.zsl.org/conservation/regions/asia/vulture-conservation-in-india-and-nepal
http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/vulture
https://www.rewildingeurope.com/life-vultures/
https://endangeredwildlifetrust.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/mass-poisoning-incident-affects-over-100-critically-endangered-vultures/