African white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus)

Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 182519946

Saving African White-backed Vultures (Gyps africanus) in Southern Tanzania

Our overall objective is to develop an evidence-based approach to reduce the impact of wildlife poisoning incidents on the population of White-backed vultures in southern Tanzania. To meet this overall objective requires that (a) we know how populations are threatened by poisoning and (b) we strengthen political will to undertake action by better establishing the ecological relevance and conservation links between vultures and other species. Use of satellite telemetry from vultures allows us to identify areas of high poisoning prevalence, whereby we can identify poisoning issues based on mortality of tagged birds. While our current system is working, this study will help us to predict how poisoning will affect vultures and to understand vulture foraging ecology as it relates to disease dynamics. Because ecological needs and threats to vultures overlap closely with other species, information derived from this tagging project will inform on-going monitoring and conservation efforts for carnivores as well. Building our understanding of vulture’s ecological role will also help to foster greater support for species conservation in country.