International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD) is held on the first Saturday in September each year. It’s function is to increase awareness of the importance of these very interesting birds of prey in the environment and to educate us on threats facing them. The fact that vultures eat carcasses and carrion tends to put off a lot of people, but we tend to forget the importance of this. By eating and removing such things, vultures help to keep the environment clean and reduce the disease risk that they pose. Vultures are amazingly well specialized and adapted to provide this essential environmental service.

Unfortunately, of the 23 species of vultures in this world, half are threatened, endangered, or critically endangered and almost all currently have declining populations. There are quite a few factors contributing to this. Poisoning is probably the most important factor. Vultures may be poisoned on purpose or be poisoned by toxins or lead in their food. Other factors include habitat destruction and reduced food supplies. Vultures are present on all continents in this world except Australia and Antarctica, which emphasizes their importance to all ecosystems.

IVAD was started in 2009 by the Birds of Prey Programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in the UK. Together they made this day into an international event. Today there were many different events held across the world by various participating organizations. Events included lectures, behind the scenes tours, special shows, nature walks, and online tutorials among other things. All of these events are going on to remind us that these essential animals need to be taken care of instead of vilified. So the next time you see a vulture, instead of being disgusted, be thankful for the incredible job that they do!

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