Vultures feeding on the dark side: current sanitary regulations may not be enough

• DOI: 10.1017/s0959270921000575
• Publication Date: 2022-06-13T19:40:44Z
• Authors: LOLA FERNÁNDEZ-GÓMEZ; AINARA CORTÉS-AVI...; ENEKO ARRONDO; MARINA GARCÍA-ALF...; OLGA CEBALLOS; EUGENIO MONTELÍO; JOSÉ A. DONÁZAR
• Keywords: Vulture

Summary It is widely acknowledged that the conservation of vultures, a group birds threatened worldwide, requires management safe, high-quality human subsidies, free potentially harmful toxic compounds. Additionally, in Europe, supply livestock carcasses subject to current sanitary regulations. largely unknown how vultures use sources food different abundance, predictability, or legal status and individual features shape these preferences. To answer questions, we took advantage information yielded by 35 GPS-tagged adult Eurasian Griffon Vultures Gyps fulvus living region northern Spain, which hosts one most important European populations. Our results indicated preferably used predictable feeding sites, such as carcass dumping intensive farms landfills together account for 62% observed sites. Less than 10% all sites had permission authorities disposal carcasses. Interestingly, with large accumulations were less those intermediate amounts probably because high intraspecific competition. In addition, sex breeding also played role males being more prone visit studied intensively managed places. This vulture population heavily dependent on are not under control where could be at risk intoxication pathogen acquisition. Hence, scenario allowing farmers abandon their exploitations seems insufficient. The future highly anthropized regions uncertain if interdictory regulations abandonment applied. scenarios based subsidization must consider effects environmental variability. We need science-based strategies ensuring long-term viability avian scavenger populations within landscapes farming intensification.