Vultures and People

This chapter explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and vultures, which date to when prehistoric hominins followed flights of vultures to large-mammal carcasses in East Africa. Several biological adaptations of vultures render them particularly vulnerable to human threats. These include feeding on dead animals that have been poisoned, eating large amounts of food at a single meal, and feeding together at “common tables,” all of which expose large numbers of vultures to contaminants simultaneously. Today, principal human threats to vultures and condors are land-use change; environmental contaminants, including veterinary drugs, the heavy metal lead, and pesticides; poisoning; and persecution, with the latter including catching and killing vultures as pests, for bushmeat and witchcraft, including as clairvoyants, and as sentinels of illegal poaching. Global climate change can also affect the distributions and abundances of avian scavengers in many ways. Creating a better understanding of the ecological functions and needs of vultures, along with monitoring their populations, are essential features of effective vulture conservation.