Vultures are often overlooked and perceived as lowly scavengers, but they play a crucial role in the environments in which they live. Their scavenging lifestyle that gives them a bad reputation is, in fact, what makes them so important for the environment, nature and society. Vultures, also known as nature’s cleanup crew, do the dirty work of cleaning up after death, helping to keep ecosystems healthy as they act as natural carcass recyclers.
They provide critically important ecosystem services and socioeconomic benefits. When livestock keepers realise the usefulness of vultures, they can have a win-win relationship. As vultures not only clean up the land, but they also eliminate the need for the treatment and incineration of thousands of tons of animal remains every year. This free cleaning service saves millions of euros in waste management and avoids the potential emission of hundreds of thousands of tons of CO2 per year, benefiting our environment and society as a whole.
Furthermore, conserving vultures means aiding other wildlife. For example, conservation efforts to protect the Bearded Vulture do not only help this species but broader conservation and rewilding goals. As an umbrella species, by safeguarding the mountain habitat for the Bearded Vulture, other mountain wildlife benefits too, such as golden eagles and ibex. Further to this, as scavengers, they do not kill livestock or game species, and thus, there is not much human-wildlife conflict. So, it is possible to collaborate with multiple stakeholders such as livestock breeders and hunters to tackle threats they face, such as poisoning, which poses a severe threat to nature, wildlife and public health.
If vultures disappear from the mountainous habitats in which they live, ecosystems can go off balance. Protecting vultures means the protection of the entire mountain ecosystems. Therefore, it is crucial to protect vultures and make sure they have a bright future in the wild.
