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Necrosyrtes monachus

Assessor: Melissa Whitecross

Other assessors
Sarah Schumann
Sensitive in 2010
No
Family
Accipitridae
Reason for the sensitivity status
This species is highly threatened by capture of wild individuals for traditional medicine and bushmeat among other threats, causing population decline. Sightings records of these birds on carcasses and flying over-head will be unlikely to have a negative impact on their well-being, however, we are of the opinion that specific details on nesting sites of these birds should be sensitised and only released at a pentad/QDGS scale. Given the small remaining population size, exploitation and poor regeneration potential, releasing data on this species may exacerbate threat and vulnerability.
This species is extremely rare in the wild and is known to be exploited, utilised or traded. The localities of remaining populations need to be protected to avoid any further exploitation, which is likely to drive it to extinction.
Exploitation extent
Significant - wild individuals of the species are known to be exploited, collected, traded or utilized in a targeted manner, and utilisation is widespread, affects the majority of wild populations and/or is causing rapid decline of the wild population.
Justification and references

This species is distributed widely throughout sub-Saharan Africa, however, it is predominantly found in the savannas of West, East and southern Africa (Ogada & Buij 2011). Strong evidence of exploitation pressure exists across the West African region of this species range (Buij et al. 2016, Ogada et al. 2016), while less of this pressure is currently observed in the small South African population, these birds do show up in South African traditional markets (McKean et al. 2013). This species is Critically Endangered and highly threatened by non-target poisoning, persecuting, and capture of wild individuals for traditional medicine and bushmeat (BirdLife International, 2022). South Africa's birds are largely confined to the protected area network in the north-east of the country which is likely the reason why low numbers of this species are picked up in traditional markets (McKean et al. 2013). However, these birds are severely affected by indiscriminate poisoning events which have been linked to harvesting techniques for traditional use (Ogada et al. 2016). 

References:

BirdLife International (2022) Species factsheet: Necrosyrtes monachus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 30/05/2022.

Buij, R., Nikolaus, G., Whytock, R., Ingram, D.J. and Ogada, D., 2016. Trade of threatened vultures and other raptors for fetish and bushmeat in West and Central Africa. Oryx, 50(4), pp.606-616.

McKean, S., Mander, M., Diederichs, N., Ntuli, L., Mavundla, K., Williams, V. and Wakelin, J., 2013. The impact of traditional use on vultures in South Africa. Vulture News, 65, pp.15-36.

Ogada, D.L. and Buij, R., 2011. Large declines of the Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus across its African range. Ostrich, 82(2), pp.101-113.

Ogada, D., Shaw, P., Beyers, R.L., Buij, R., Murn, C., Thiollay, J.M., Beale, C.M., Holdo, R.M., Pomeroy, D., Baker, N. and Krüger, S.C., 2016. Another continental vulture crisis: Africa's vultures collapsing toward extinction. Conservation Letters, 9(2), pp.89-97.

 

Population vulnerability
Population is vulnerable: size is <= 2500 mature individuals OR the number of known subpopulations is <= 5 OR range is <= 100km2 OR species at risk of localised extinctions
Justification and references

The current population estimate, with high confidence, for South Africa is 50-100 pairs (Anderson 2000) and this species is currently listed as Critically Endangered at both a regional and global scale (Taylor et al. 2015).

Anderson, M.D. 2000. Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus In: Barnes, K.N. (ed.) The Eskom red data book of birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. BirdLife South Africa.

Taylor, M.R., Peacock, D.S. and Wanless, R.M., 2015. The Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. BirdLife South Africa.

Targeted demographics
Mature (breeding) individuals are killed, significantly weakened or are permanently removed from the wild, OR immature individuals are targeted and this significantly impacts mature (breeding) individuals.
Justification and references

Indiscriminate poisoning of vulture species using poison-laced carcasses is the single biggest threat to all of Africa's vulture species (Ogada et al. 2016). Over 400 individual vultures can be killed on a single poised carcass if the carcass is not detected early enough for clean-up efforts to take place (Green 2015).

References:

Green, I. 2015. Elephant, 46 vultures and 4 lions killed for muti. Lowvelder News Article. Caxton Press.

Ogada, D., Shaw, P., Beyers, R.L., Buij, R., Murn, C., Thiollay, J.M., Beale, C.M., Holdo, R.M., Pomeroy, D., Baker, N. and Krüger, S.C., 2016. Another continental vulture crisis: Africa's vultures collapsing toward extinction. Conservation Letters, 9(2), pp.89-97.

Regeneration potential
This species has a slow population growth rate, or the growth rate varies depending on habitat, and there is a poor chance the wild populations will recover from exploitation OR a collector might feasibly harvest the entire extant population removing the chance of subsequent recruitment.
Justification and references

Hooded Vultures are long-lived species with slow breeding rates and approximately 46% breeding success (Taylor et al. 2015). This makes their regeneration potential, as with most large, long-lived species, poor in the face of fast-acting and far-reaching threats such as poisoning. 

References:

Taylor, M.R., Peacock, D.S. and Wanless, R.M., 2015. The Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. BirdLife South Africa.

Reference file
Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) - BirdLife species factsheet.pdf167.76 KB