Vultures are keystone scavengers facing dramatic population declines globally. Habitat loss, poisoning, and persecution threaten entire species and the ecological services they provide.
Vultures face welfare challenges both in the wild and through direct human persecution. Poisoning causes painful deaths for individual birds, and because vultures aggregate at carcasses, a single poisoned body can kill dozens. Lead poisoning from ammunition fragments in carcasses is a chronic welfare and population concern for condors and other species. Habitat loss reduces foraging success and nesting sites, increasing energy expenditure and breeding failure. Trade in vulture parts for traditional medicine in Africa involves trapping and killing that inflicts significant suffering. The loss of vultures from ecosystems also indirectly harms other animals by allowing disease vectors like feral dogs and rats to proliferate around carcasses.