Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste is disposed of at slaughterhouses has left them desperately short of food, researchers say.
In the 1970s, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were among at least seven different vulture species that soared across Nigerian skies, according to historical records; now only they and palm-nut vultures (Gypohierax angolensis) persist, and numbers of both are dropping drastically.
Food scarcity is playing a significant role in driving this decline, says ornithologist Michael Manja Williams, a Ph.D. candidate at Nigeria’s Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University. In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, vultures could find carcasses in the wild to feed on, he says. But overhunting of wild mammals depleted that vital food source, leaving the birds increasingly reliant on humans.
“In the early ’80s and ’90s, abattoirs were the central places that you could find [hooded] vultures,” Williams says, while noting that the birds face fierce competition at these sites from feral dogs and people.
“The vultures fear the dogs; they won’t come where there are canines. So, you see the vultures hovering around.”
The implications for the vultures are stark.
Williams and his team recorded a 94% drop in numbers of hooded vultures in central Plateau state over just seven years. They only saw 18 hooded vultures in 2024, down from 275 in 2017, and not a single palm-nut vulture.
As part of the survey, Williams and his team visited 68 abattoirs and poultry dump sites across all 17 districts (local government areas) in Plateau state.
Their findings suggest that changes in abattoir design have exacerbated the food crisis. In the past, abattoirs were open, allowing vultures to perch in nearby trees and swoop down to feed. Now, most are roofed, restricting the birds’ access.
Human population growth and poverty have also intensified the vultures’ struggle for food. Scraps that were once discarded are now used to feed dogs or even livestock; animal bones are crushed into meal for chickens. Even blood, which hooded vultures can eat when clotted, is being repurposed.
“Some people use [the blood to feed] their dogs at home, and I’ve seen [at a marketplace in the Mikang local government area] where they cook it and they were selling it — the blood of a pig, actually,” Williams says.
With abattoirs offering little food for the vultures, the birds have shifted to scavenging at poultry dumpsites, which contain dead chicks, eggs and other waste. Unlike abattoirs, these sites are open, but the vultures need to contend with other scavenging birds like pied crows (Corvus albus) and yellow-billed kites (Milvus aegyptius), which often outnumber vultures and mob them, preventing them from feeding.
In neighboring Benin, researchers have documented similar declines in hooded vultures and comparable changes in waste disposal practices at abattoirs.
During road surveys covering nearly 1,500 kilometers (about 930 miles) in 2019, researchers led by Clément Daboné counted just 52 hooded vultures, according to findings published last year. Throughout their survey in northern Benin, the team saw no animal carcasses or organs left out for vultures at abattoirs.
They also witnessed traps set for hooded vultures at three abattoirs and, at another, a hunter armed with a shotgun.
“Across West Africa, abattoirs and dumpsites are well-known harvesting sites for vultures,” says Darcy Ogada, a Nairobi-based program director for The Peregrine Fund, a conservation group.
“Any gathering places are just easy locations for them to be killed for the trade.”
Vulture parts are sold as lucky charms or to help people predict the future.
The shift from open-air to covered abattoirs, along with the installation of underground waste storage tanks, also documented in western Kenya, was inevitable, Ogada says.
“It’s another nail in the coffin for this critically endangered species.”
The food shortage compounds the poaching crisis. Memories are still fresh of the largest recorded mass vulture killing: In 2020, as many as 2,000 vultures, most of them hooded, were poisoned in Guinea-Bissau.
In Nigeria, Williams has found that every part of a vulture holds value on the illegal market. A teaspoon of vulture droppings can sell for up to 10,000 naira ($6), while a whole bird, dead or alive, can earn a poacher more than 300,000 naira ($200).
For the vultures that escape poaching, food shortages still threaten their survival. Hooded vultures are slow breeders, raising only one chick per year. If the parents can’t find enough food, the chick will not survive.
One possible solution is supplementary feeding through so-called vulture restaurants, a conservation strategy used in other parts of Africa and in Asia. However, Williams warns that in West Africa, such efforts could backfire. The birds could be exposed to contaminants in food or targeted for the illegal trade in vulture body parts.
“If we gather [vultures] in one place, and people get to know of it, they’ll go and hunt them,” he says.
Attracting vultures to a secure feeding site in a region where they’ve been nearly wiped out is also a challenge. Talatu Tende, a senior research associate at A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute in Jos, Plateau state, knows this firsthand.
She established experimental vulture restaurants at two locations in Amurum Forest Reserve, where the institute is located, provisioning them regularly with meat scraps, offal and bones from local butcheries. In more than two years, not a single vulture has visited. Instead, civets (Civettictis civetta) and birds of prey like kites and Wahlberg’s eagles (Hieraaetus wahlbergi) have consumed the food.
It’s a troubling indication of the state of local vulture populations. Still, Tende remains hopeful.
“I strongly believe that well-established and protected vulture restaurants do have the capacity to supplement feeding for hooded vultures and subsequently fill up the gaps [left by changes at abattoirs],” she says.
In the meantime, promoting coexistence between people and vultures is a pressing conservation need. Shifting attitudes in favor of the birds could help alleviate food shortages in many regions.
In Burkina Faso, for instance, hooded vultures are considered sacred, and abattoirs still feed them.
“Conservationists should try to work more intensively with staff at abattoirs [in West Africa] to create awareness about the global plight of the species and in turn to solicit help from abattoir staff to conserve the birds,” Ogada says, adding that these workers could also provide valuable insights on vultures as they interact with them on a daily basis.
“I know there are some sympathetic staff at abattoirs.”
In Nigeria, Williams has witnessed how abattoir workers can be allies in vulture conservation. In Cross River state, southeastern Nigeria, people volunteer as vulture guardians at abattoirs to protect the birds from poachers.
But in other areas, including Kano and Ekiti states, where Williams and colleagues have conducted ethno-ornithological surveys, hooded vultures are still feared and frequently killed or driven away, or have their nests destroyed for use in traditional medicine. In Plateau state, hooded vultures are killed by people who believe that a vulture laying an egg will stop the rain from falling.
Overcoming these deeply ingrained beliefs will require sustained effort and education.
“Some people didn’t know how important the vultures are, they didn’t know their importance to the environment,” Williams says. “If you see them as witches, you’ll be killing them rather than feeding them.”
This article by Ryan Truscott was first published by Mongabay.com on 24 April 2025. Lead Image: Hooded vulture, Gambia 2017. Image by Pete Richman via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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