page_title: African vulture trade
section_title: Bushmeat
hierarchical_section_title: African vulture trade / Bushmeat
caption_attribution_description: English: Regions of the African Union &#160;North&#160; &#160;Southern&#160; &#160;East&#160; &#160;West&#160; &#160;Central&#160;
context_page_description: The African vulture trade involves the poaching, trafficking, and illegal sale of vultures and vulture parts for bushmeat and for belief use, like traditional medicines, in Sub-Saharan Africa. This illegal trade of vultures and vulture parts is contributing to a population crisis on the continent. In 2017, the IUCN Red List categorized seven of Africa's 11 vulture species as globally endangered or critically endangered. Recent research suggests that 90% of vulture species declines in Africa may be due to a combination of poisoning and illegal wildlife trade for medicinal use and/or bushmeat. All trade of African vultures is illegal, as these birds are protected by international laws.
  African vulture trade falls under the broader spectrum of wildlife trade, with both national and international trade occurring. Vultures are sometimes specifically targeted for bushmeat consumption or traditional belief use. Poachers also target vultures, even when they are not harvesting the vultures for bushmeat or belief use purposes. Since vultures circle over carcasses, they can be used as sentinels, alerting wildlife authorities of poaching events.
context_section_description: Bushmeat is meat harvested from non-domesticated animals including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. Poachers target vulture species in sub-Saharan Africa for bushmeat harvest and consumption. Poaching and harvest of vultures for market trade usually involves poisoning the birds by baiting livestock and wildlife carcasses with agrochemicals. This attracts the vultures to feed, as they are obligate scavengers.  The birds eat the poisoned meat and die, making the harvest easy. However, the poisons the vultures ingest are passed along through the food chain which places the humans that consume these birds also at risk for poisoning. The two leading causes for vulture deaths are poisoning and trade in traditional medicine, these two causes make up 90% of reported deaths.
caption: Regions of Africa used to describe trends in bushmeat and traditional belief use of vultures. Pink is West Africa, purple is Central Africa, green is East Africa, blue is Southern Africa, and yellow is North Africa.
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