Muhtari Aminu Kano, sitting and facing the camera, recalled that while growing up, the Nigerian sky swarmed with dark wings, heralding the unseen work of nature’s most misunderstood janitors—vultures.
These birds, often scorned for their sinister appearance and grim dining habits, were the silent custodians of the ecosystem, he said, their serrated beaks tearing through death to preserve life. Yet, as time unfurled, these masters of decay found themselves on the brink of it, pushed ever closer to extinction by a world that fails to grasp their worth.
Today, in Nigeria’s sun-scorched savannas and dense forests, the ominous silhouette of the vulture is fading. Twenty-three species—each a critical thread in the ecological tapestry—are rapidly vanishing, becoming a fleeting echo of what was.
A documentary titled ‘Our Plight to Survive: Nigeria’s Vulture & Wildlife Trade Crisis‘, produced by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) in 2021, casts a stark light on this crisis. “Vultures are being driven into extinction in this country,” Muhtari, the former Director-General of NCF lamented, his voice tinged with the melancholy of a natural world slipping through our fingers. “When I was young, you go to any city, you go to the abattoir, and you will see vultures flying and hovering around. And within seconds, they have cleaned up all the mess that is around the abattoir. You don’t see that anymore.”
Research reveals a chilling reality: Africa’s vulture population has plummeted by as much as 90% over the last half-century, a collapse that echoes across the continent with devastating consequences.
The Silent Guardians of Health
Vultures, with their sharp beaks and stronger-than-steel stomachs, are nature’s unsung heroes. Their bald heads, an evolutionary marvel, allow them to dive deep into carrion without the sticky mess of feathers mired in decay.
Their digestive systems are veritable cauldrons, boiling away bacteria and pathogens that would spell disaster for lesser creatures—and for humans. When vultures feast, they do more than clear away the dead; they halt the spread of disease, acting as nature’s first line of defence against pandemics.
Joseph Onoja, an African vulture expert, aptly described them in the 2021 documentary as “environmental sanitation officers,” their work as vital as it is overlooked.
Without vultures, the carcasses they once cleared begin to fester, becoming breeding grounds for disease. In a cruel twist of fate, the very animals that prevent death’s advance are themselves dying, their numbers dwindling as a result of greed and ignorance.
A Dark Trade and Poisoned Earth
The vultures’ demise is no accident; it is a tragedy orchestrated and aided by humans. In the shadowy world of wildlife trade, vultures are commodities—traded for their supposed medicinal properties, their body parts believed to cure ailments from skin diseases to epilepsy. Rituals steeped in superstition fuel this demand, and in Nigeria, the illegal trade in vultures is a booming business.
As the vultures teeter on the brink, conservationists wage a desperate battle to pull them back. Organisations like the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, BirdLife International, and Vultures Conservation Foundation are at the forefront of this fight, their efforts ranging from public awareness campaigns to direct action against poaching and poisoning. Yet, despite these efforts, the vultures’ numbers continue to decline, a sobering reminder of how fragile our natural world has become.
Also, in Nigeria, the Endangered Species Act, first passed in 1985, exists to protect these birds and regulate the trade and exploitation of vulnerable species. In the end, the survival of these environmental stewards is essential for a healthy environment. As guardians of public health, their extinction would be a great loss, a wound inflicted upon the earth that may never heal.