Vulture numbers and densities in a large protected savannah in West Africa

Application of GPS occurrence data to understand African white‐backed vultures Gyps africanus spatial home range overlaps

“…This may be explained by consistent and reliable carcass abundance in protected areas due to starvation, diseases, and sometimes poaching incidents, compared to human‐dominated landscapes where improved livestock management practices has resulted in drastic reductions in mortalities of domesticated animals (Kendall et al, 2014 ; Pomeroy et al, 2015 ; Thiollay, 2006 ). Our preliminary results thus reaffirm the critical contribution of protected areas to the conservation of critically endangered African vulture species (Murn et al, 2016 ; Salewski, 2021 ; Xirouchakkis & Mylonas, 2007 ). Our results are, however, contrary to findings from other studies which showed that some vulture species tend to prefer human‐dominated landscapes compared to protected areas, thus posing several conservation challenges to wildlife managers (Buechley et al, 2021 ; Henriques et al, 2018 ; Phipps et al, 2013 ).…”

“…Estimating and quantifying space use overlapping zones for vulture species could be the first strategic step for effective conservation planning as it provides vital information to support spatially explicit and focused conservation interventions over much smaller zones (French et al, 2019 ; Hoover et al, 2020 ). In fact, the Multi‐Species Action Plan to Conserve African‐Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MSAP), proposes the prioritization of conservation efforts targeting specific geographic zones which support vulture aggregations and interactions (Botha et al, 2017 ), while Xirouchakis et al ( 2021 ) also recommended prioritizing the conservation of vulture hotspot zones as an urgent and indispensable response strategy for supporting any vulture recovery action plans (Efrat et al, 2020 ; Safford et al, 2019 ; Salewski, 2021 ).…”

“…It is in this context that conservation of vultures is now considered a top priority at a global scale (Buechley et al, 2019 , 2021 ; Safford et al, 2019 ). One of the overarching challenges facing efforts to priorities vulture conservation is lack of spatially explicit knowledge regarding the distribution of key overlapping geographic zones and habitats supporting vulture populations in terms of food predictability as well as secure breeding and roosting sites (Buechley et al, 2019 ; Reading et al, 2019 ; Salewski, 2021 ). Such geographic zones are naturally not globally widespread within ecosystems, but confined to few landscapes (Margalida & Ogada, 2018 ).…”

“…However, to date, there is paucity of published literature that focus on quantifying African white‐backed vultures intra‐specific geographic overlap zones, and even for other vulture species (Reading et al, 2019 ). Lack of knowledge on space use sharing mechanisms among endangered species has been a major handicap for any attempts to design focused and strategic interventions meant to enhance the recovery of such vulture species (Cortés‐Avizanda et al, 2014 ; Kendall et al, 2012 ; Salewski, 2021 ). Several reasons have been proffered for the paucity of literature on the nature of spatial interactions among African white‐backed vultures in particular, and other vulture species in general.…”

“…In fact, the Multi-Species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MSAP), proposes the prioritization of conservation efforts targeting specific geographic zones which support vulture aggregations and interactions (Botha et al, 2017), while Xirouchakis et al (2021) also recommended prioritizing the conservation of vulture hotspot zones as an urgent and indispensable response strategy for supporting any vulture recovery action plans (Efrat et al, 2020;Safford et al, 2019;Salewski, 2021).…”