Global Challenges to Sustaining Vulture and Condor Populations Available to Purchase

Vulture and condor populations have declined dramatically due to consumption of livestock contaminated with pharmaceuticals, secondary poisoning from lead ammunition, retaliatory poisoning from loss of livestock, the use of vulture body parts for religious practices, and fatal interactions with electrical infrastructure. The Asian and African vulture crises have stimulated research and conservation actions including a comprehensive Multispecies Action Plan for African-Eurasian Vultures that provides a blueprint for conservation action. However, research and conservation efforts for vultures are fraught with challenges at political, continental, and grassroots levels. These challenges span national and international borders and encompass continental differences in the impacts to specific species of raptors as well as other wildlife. Yet there are reports of increasing numbers and potential solutions involving international collaborations and consortia. At the 2019 Raptor Research Foundation meeting, we convened a special symposium to address the conservation and viability of vulture populations, with attention to the...