Following the publication of a recent paper by Ogada et al. (2015) discussing the status and trends of vultures in the African continent, which revealed shocking continent-wide declines for all the species, and which suggested that several species of African vultures are likely to qualify as ‘Critically Endangered’ (see here), the Birdlife Global Species Programme, which coordinates the evaluation of the status of each species using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria, for the IUCM red lists, opened last week a Bird Forum asking for opinions regarding a potential status change of 6 species of African vultures.
These web-based Globally Threatened Bird Forums are used to advertise the proposed changes and to solicit relevant information or comment from a wide network of experts and organizations. In these discussion forums, a proposed new Red List category is suggested, and comments or further input is required from both professional and amateur birdwatchers and conservationists.
If you have data on African vultures, please contribute – it is crucial that their red list status accurately reflects their occurrence on the ground and current trends.
You can access the forum here:
You can download the paper below.
(Photo André Botha)
Declines of African vultures Ogada et al 2015 Conservation letters African vulture declines Ogada et al 201 Adobe Acrobat Document 415.8 KB Download