Vulture Exclusion Halves Large Carcass Decomposition Rates and Doubles Fly Abundance.

Carcass consumption by scavengers plays a critical role in wildlife and human health by providing services that maintain ecosystem functioning and potentially mitigate disease spreading. Vultures are particularly efficient scavengers, but their populations have sharply declined in Europe, Asia and Africa, raising concerns about similar declines in the comparatively less studied species of the Americas. While the effects of vulture absence on other vertebrate scavengers have been examined, the impact on invertebrate scavengers and their role in carrion decomposition remains unexplored.

Determination of hematologic reference intervals for free-living King vultures (Sarcoramphus papa).

Background: As obligate scavengers, New World vultures (Cathartiformes: Cathartidae) play a key role in carcass removal and disease control. Associated with this ecosystem service, vultures are exposed to the consumption of harmful substances such as poisons, heavy metals, antibiotics, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Monitoring the health status of vulture populations is a priority and an important conservation strategy, and hematologic analysis is a practical and effective method that can be useful for this purpose.