Vultures in Nigeria – some missed opportunities?

Abstract

Ostrich is co-published by NISC (Pty) Ltd and Informa UK Limited (trading as Taylor & Francis Group) The recent paper by Williams et al. (2021) certainly shows the vultures of Nigeria to be in dire straits. While there may still be some havens for vultures, such as the Yankari Game Reserve (Onoja et al. 2014) adjoining the authors’ study area of Plateau State, the Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus itself, once ubiquitous and abundant in the country, seems to be on its ‘last legs’. Nevertheless I think the authors have missed some opportunities to make their findings more precise, as follows. My strongest comment concerns the statement of Williams et al. (2021) that the decline of vultures has occurred in the ‘past 3–4 decades.’ I lived in Sokoto, northern Nigeria, in 1969–1972, and made a particular study of Hooded Vultures with my friend Allan Cook who lived there much longer. Our results are about to be submitted, but they comprised inter alia (i) counts of up to 1 500 at the town abattoir, (ii) counts of up to 100 at the main market, (iii) more than 300 nests found in and around the town, (iv) virtually no interference or persecution of vultures, or their nesting trees, or the eggs and chicks, (v) no discovery of vultures as food, and (vi) no dead or decapitated birds found (PJ Mundy and AW Cook, pers. obs.). Much later and on a visit to Ghana in 1996, we saw unmolested vultures at the abattoir on the beach west of Accra, birds nesting in leafy trees along a main road in Accra, and an estimated 500 circling over the abattoir at Kumasi (Anderson 1999; Mundy 2000). At the latter place, we even saw Hooded Vultures standing on the chopping blocks of the butchers and on top of open doors: there was no indication of persecution. Even in the Plateau State, study area of the paper, ‘huge numbers’ were once seen at the abattoirs. Given these observations, what has changed since the year 2000 (i.e. two decades ago), in terms of society at large, but its need for belief-based usage and even food consumption? So far this is the big missed opportunity — there is no consideration in the Williams et al. (2021) paper, let alone research into, any hypothesised societal changes over the decades. From a situation of huge numbers of Hooded Vultures in Nigeria in 1973 and subsequently, and through to similar numbers in Ghana in 1996, why is the situation now so ‘alarming’? Yes, there is a doubling of human numbers, greater political volatility and future uncertainty, more poverty; but are these the simple drivers? Fortunately, the Nigerian Conservation Foundation is working on education and awareness to correct ‘misguided conceptions’, as the paper recommended. These efforts must be supported if there is to be any hope for the survival of vultures in Nigeria. I think this year of 2000 was a threshold year for vultures in Nigeria, and perhaps for West Africa as a region: incredible numbers before and ‘drastic decline’ since. This tipping point needs further investigation. There are no vulture ‘restaurants’ in Nigeria, but plenty of abattoirs. Indeed, abattoirs handle carcasses almost daily, unlike the normal ‘restaurant’ which possibly produces carcasses weekly, and abattoirs are therefore very attractive to Hooded Vultures in particular. I have seen the birds at the Sokoto abattoir (PJ Mundy and AW Cook, pers. obs.), at abattoirs previously in Zimbabwe (Mundy 1997a), at Skukuza in the Kruger National Park (Mundy 1997b), and at Accra and Kumasi in Ghana (Mundy 2000); see also Friedman (2021). The Hooded Vulture gathers at abattoirs because there is food at these places, it is relaxed with humans, and it has meanwhile escaped from the dominance of the larger species of vulture, which normally out-compete it at carcasses. Therefore, it is essential that regular counts be made at several abattoirs throughout the country so as to give the species some kind of abundance rating, i.e. turning the qualitative ‘declining’ into something more quantitative. Can this opportunity be grasped? In addition, why are many vultures ‘found dead’ at abattoirs, a very worrying observation, and surely the result of poisoning? Throughout much of West Africa, and indeed most of Africa, Hooded Vultures breed (i.e. lay eggs) when the rains have finished (Mundy et al. 1992), and into the following dry season. This was certainly the case at Sokoto (PJ Mundy and AW Cook, pers. obs.). So I do not understand how the locals could link egg-laying to preventing the rains (Figure 3 in Williams et al. 2021), which have already well finished. Williams et al. (2021) should have clarified this misconception for the locals. There are other mis-conceptions by the locals that Williams et al. (2021) could have clarified with them, being Hooded Vultures on their own (almost never, they are a sociable species, though on occasions it will be alone; Mundy et al. 1992; ATK Lee, in litt.), and how to identify Commentary