Paphos Life

The discovery last week of three dead vultures in Paphos is "a huge blow" to the species' population in Cyprus, according to a joint statement issued on Wednesday by the game and fauna service and BirdLife Cyprus. The island???s vulture population has fallen from 15-20 in 2021 to just eight in 2022, it said. ...

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This is so sad. A number of vultures were reintroduced to Cyprus, from Crete a few years ago, in an effort to prevent them from being extinct here. But they fall victim to poison when eating carcasses of animals which have died as a result of ingesting poison. It's a pity that such poisons are still available in shops in the villages. and are used widely by farmers and others..
Vultures if allowed to live their normal lives perform a useful service.

Dee

40-50 years back there were plenty of vultures in Cyprus, however there were also outside near every village at the countryside rubbish dumps where they were feeding. I did many road trips at that time and remember seeing them always around these dumps. Removing them perhaps reduced their source of life too much....

Max

I have recounted elsewhere how, in 1952, I saw a dead donkey being stripped to the bones within an hour or so of its death. A single vulture identified the corpse and communicated to about 10 or so birds in the Pentadactylos. I don't know which species of vulture it was, as there were two types then.

I would say that toxic corpses were far from being the major cause of the demise of the species. Much more important is the fact that animal owners can no longer leave corpses where they die – this is an effect of an attempt at better hygiene.