Poisoning poached megafauna can boost trade in African vultures

Abstract

Illegal wildlife trade threatens iconic species, such as elephants, rhinos or giraffes, on which poaching pressure has increased in recent times. By poisoning the carcasses of poached megafauna to prevent the early detection of poachers, this illegal activity is contributing to push African vultures to the brink of extinction. But poisoning vultures at poached carcasses of megafauna can also boost belief-based trade of vulture body parts by facilitating access to otherwise difficult-to-reach species. Since increased vulture availability through megafauna poaching could stimulate not only domestic, but also international trade, we call for transboundary coordination to effectively track the real dimension of this pervasive synergy. Existing monitoring schemes of megafauna poaching (e.g. CITES Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants, MIKE) and wildlife poisoning (e.g. African Wildlife Poison Database) can be a promising starting point. For example, by counting the number of vultures with missing parts at each megafauna carcass, while guiding the implementation of similar monitoring for other species threatened by poaching. Besides straightforward impacts on target species, illegal wildlife trade affects non-target species, with collateral damages being increasingly highlighted. Pervasive synergies such as the one we describe here deserves further international attention to prevent that poaching will spread for other purposes.