Where have the vultures gone?

Kara Market, located along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at the boundary between Lagos and Ogun states, is a vibrant hub renowned for its cattle and ram sales.

The market, which also contains an abattoir, sees tonnes of livestock butchered and sold daily to meat and food vendors.

As with many open-air markets, cattle egrets hover in the skies above, but one bird that once dominated these scenes—the vulture—has become a rare sight.

A walk through various sections of the market ending at the abattoir, which shares a boundary with a flowing river, reveals an abundance of only cattle egrets, and not once was any vulture sighted.

When asked about the last time he saw a vulture, a butcher, who simply identified as Tijani, and has spent over 10 years in the market, could not remember.

“Ah! You won’t see igun (Yoruba name for vulture) here anymore. They don’t stay here, only these,” he said, pointing to an egret perched on a roof nearby.

He explained that vultures are now more commonly found in Ijebu areas like Remo, Iperu, and Sagamu, far from Kara Market.

“You can’t see them here,” he added, passing a photo of the bird I shared with him to his colleagues, who also concurred that the bird could not be found in the market.

While the butchers were aware that vultures eat dead and decaying carcasses, they admitted to not fully understanding the bird’s ecological importance.

This reflects a broader misunderstanding among many Nigerians about the role vultures play in maintaining environmental health.

Once a common sight in open-air markets and dumpsites, vultures are steadily disappearing.

In Lagos State’s Olusosun dumpsite, vultures that used to thrive among the mountainous waste have also become rare.

A worker at the 100-acre dump said the last time he saw one was in 2022.

The absence of vultures at Kara Market and Olusosun dumpsite is part of a larger, troubling trend seen across Nigeria.

Why are vultures so important?

These hard-looking creatures, with their bald heads, sharp beaks, and keen eyesight, were once a common sight, swooping down to feast on the carcasses of dead animals.

But now, many have to prod their memory to recall when they last saw one, especially in urban settings.

Their scavenging nature, which appears unsightly to some, serves a critical purpose in nature – preventing the spread of disease.

Without them, decomposing animals will litter the landscape, creating breeding grounds for deadly pathogens.

Vultures are nature’s disposal system. They take care of rotting carcasses and keep the environment clean and healthy.

The birds are nature’s only obligated scavengers, with each species serving a unique feeding function.

“They are adapted to efficiently dispose of rotting flesh and bone, as well as other organic waste, thereby reducing the spread of disease among wildlife and livestock, as well as abating the risk of pathogen spillover to humans.

“Without the presence of vultures, carcasses will remain exposed to the environment for weeks. The result is a build-up of harmful diseases and bacteria, such as anthrax, botulism, and rabies, which will negatively impact human life and wildlife,” wildlifefact.com explained.

A conservationist, Dr Mark Ofua, described vultures as nature’s frontline defence mechanism against zoonotic diseases.

“They play a crucial role in our biodiversity, and if we lose these birds, we will pay heavily for it,” Ofua explained.

He added, “When the population of vultures in India declined, there was an increase in rabies. Humans were dying from rabies. They were worried about the increase in cases, and when they investigated, they found that it was linked to the vultures’ near extinction.

“With the disappearance of vultures, animals with rabies die, but there are no vultures to clean them up. Instead, secondary scavengers, like mammals, eat them, but these animals don’t have the same protection that vultures have, so they fall ill and are eaten by other animals, which in turn come in contact with local dogs. These local dogs brought rabies into the human population.

“They act as nature’s dustbin, eating up dead and diseased animals that would otherwise have posed a threat to us. Now, with these vultures critically endangered, we have lost the frontline defence that nature provided, and we are exposed to diseases from dead animals that other scavengers will bring to our doorstep. Last year, we had cases of anthrax—these are some of the diseases these vultures protect us from.”

The birds’ scavenging habits helped to eliminate disease threats before they had a chance to spread. Their extremely corrosive stomach acids allow them to consume bacteria-ridden flesh without falling ill, effectively neutralising pathogens.

With their population in decline, there are fears of a rapid spread of zoonotic diseases.

Where have the vultures gone?

Vultures, once a common sight in Nigeria, are vanishing. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the seven species of vultures in Nigeria—the Egyptian vulture, hooded vulture, white-backed gyps, white-headed vulture, Ruppell’s griffon, palm-nut vulture, and lappet-faced vultures—are critically endangered.

The hooded vulture, still the most common, has seen a population decline of over 80 per cent in some regions of Nigeria, including Edo State, according to a 2018 study by Nosazeogie et al.

This steep decline has been attributed to a combination of habitat loss, poisoning, and poaching.

The conservationist remembered years ago when these creatures were seen freely on roads.

“As a child, I remember travelling towards the east. One very strong indicator that you were approaching the east was the sight of vultures lined up in trees along the roads or even on the ground, in their numbers, waiting for road kills.

“But in the last decade or two, we don’t see such sights anymore. Now, we are unbothered because apart from their consumption of road-kill, we don’t see what these vultures do for us, but their disappearance has strong implications,” he warned.

Various factors have contributed to the steady decline of vultures. Ofua noted that habitat loss and fragmentation are primary issues.

“Agriculture and construction are taking over our forests. As the forest is cleared, these birds lose their homes. Some species of vultures will only nest in specific, giant trees. When we lose these trees, the vultures lose their homes, which is a serious problem.”

Pesticide use on animals is another threat, as poisoned carcasses kill vultures when consumed.

Vultures are known for their excellent eyesight, and some traditionalists believe that their body parts can be used to see into the future.

The conservationist added that vultures are poached for traditional medicine, especially during election seasons, as people believe they can use them for rituals to win elections.

Mary Egbe, a Species Conservation Manager with the Nigeria Conservation Foundation, said poaching and hunting for ritual purposes are significant threats.

A 2017 NCF survey discovered that Kano, Ibadan, and Ikare were hubs of vulture sales.

In these locations, wildlife and herb sellers buy vultures, either dead or alive, for their customers.

“Belief-based practitioners and other spiritualists use vulture body parts for the awure fortune charm. The survey also discovered that a vulture head could sell for up to N15,000, whereas the whole body could cost as much as N30,000,” 4vultures.org added.

There is also indiscriminate killing of vultures due to the belief that they are evil creatures.

What needs to be done?

Without vultures, Nigeria risks facing the same public health crises seen in other countries.

As vultures disappear, secondary scavengers take over. However, these animals lack the same disease resistance as vultures, increasing the risk of zoonotic disease transmission to humans.

A 2021 study by Van Den Heever et al., titled Reviewing the Role of Vultures at the Human-Wildlife-Livestock Disease Interface: An African Perspective, highlights the danger of vultures’ absence.

The study warned, “The absence of competitive regulation by these apex scavengers may result in changes in the composition of the vertebrate scavenger guild, with an increase in mammalian scavengers giving rise to increased contact rates at carcasses, which may increase the risk of viral disease transmission to humans, livestock, and other wildlife.

“Although the economic value of vultures in terms of the sanitation services they provide has been evaluated, their contribution to the economics of human health and veterinary care remains to be quantified.”

The species conservation manager, Egbe, stressed the need for massive awareness creation.

“People need to understand that every species plays a role. Vultures are specialised cleaners of rotten flesh and death. If you remove vultures from the ecosystem, you leave a void, and no other bird species has that level of speciality in removing rotting flesh.

“That creates an ecosystem imbalance with serious implications for both the government and the public, as some diseases, like rabies, are difficult to treat. It can be a public health menace when you remove specialist animals or species.

“We need to raise awareness that not all species are evil because they look unconventional. Their appearance is a result of ecological evolution in the way they feed,” Egbe said.

No technology can take on the role of vultures, Ofua insisted. He explained that their contribution to sanitising the ecosystem cannot be done by technology.

As vultures continue to vanish, more awareness must be raised about their role in maintaining a healthy environment. Communities must work together with conservationists to protect these birds, while the government needs to enforce stricter laws against poaching and the illegal use of pesticides. Without collective action, Nigeria risks facing the same public health crises seen in other countries that have lost their vultures.

Lessons from India

Between the 1990s and early 200s, India suffered a fatal public health crisis where over 500,000 people died due to the massive decline of their vulture population, a situation where 96 per cent of the vulture population was decimated.

Diclofenac, a drug used to treat sick cows, were ingested by the vultures, thus causing them to die en masse of liver failure.

Their demise led to secondary scavengers like local dogs taking up the role of scavengers. As the dog population exploded and came in contact with humans, there was a rise in rabies among humans.

Experts estimated that this public health crisis cost the Indian public health system an estimated $34bn between 1993 and 2006.