The Crowned eagle, for example is dependent on forest habitats, eating mainly monkeys, small antelope and dassies living in forests and nesting in the big trees. As forests are destroyed and consequently the habitat of the birds shrinks, so their numbers fall. Poisoning Raptors are poisoned both accidentally and on purpose. Stockfarmers, in their desire to rid their farms of problem animals such as jackal and rooikat, will bait a carcass with poison such as strychnine. The raptor, finding the dead animal will feed from it, eat some of the poison and die, even though the farmer may not have intended this.
Many people still enjoy hunting and shooting birds for sport.
Illegal trade in birds does still occur and this involves the capture and removal of a bird from its natural habitat, as well as the robbing of eggs and chicks from nests. In addition birds may be shot because they are thought to be responsible for stock loss. In fact, most often the stock has been killed by some other cause and the raptor has flown in to eat the carrion. On seeing a raptor on a dead animal, the farmer may conclude that the bird is responsible for its death. In fact very few birds of prey are large enough to injure an animal as large as a lamb for example, let alone kill it.