Hooded vulture

The hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) is an Old World

vulture in the order Accipitriformes, which also includes eagles, Hooded vulture
kites, buzzards and hawks. It is the only member of the genus
Necrosyrtes, which is sister to the larger Gyps genus, both of
which are a part of the Aegypiinae subfamily of Old World
vultures.[2] It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it has a
widespread distribution with populations in southern, East and
West Africa.[3][4] It is a scruffy-looking, small vulture with dark
brown plumage, a long thin bill, bare crown, face and fore-neck,
and a downy nape and hind-neck. Its face is usually a light red
colour. It typically scavenges on carcasses of wildlife and
domestic animals. Although it remains a common species with a
stable population in the lower region of Casamance, some areas
of The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau, other regions such as
Dakar, Senegal, show more than 85% losses in population over
the last 50 years.[4][5] Threats include poisoning, hunting, loss of
habitat and collisions with electricity infrastructure, and the
International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its
conservation status as "critically endangered" in their latest
assessment (2022).[5] The highest current regional density of in Gambia
hooded vultures is in the western region of The Gambia.[6]
Conservation status

Etymology
The common name "hooded vulture" stems from the fact that the
vulture has a small patch of downy feathers that runs along the Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]
back of its neck to the crown of its head, making it look like it is Scientific classification
wearing a fluffy, cream-colored hood.[7] The scientific name,
Necrosyrtes monachus, can be broken down into 3 sections: Domain: Eukaryota
"necro", since it feeds on carrion; "syrtes" which means Kingdom: Animalia
"quicksand" or "bog" and "monachus" which is Latin for
"monk" and relates to the hood of the vulture.[8] Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Description Order: Accipitriformes
Family: Accipitridae
Appearance Genus: Necrosyrtes
Gloger, 1841
The hooded vulture is a typical vulture, with a head that is
usually pinkish-white, but flushes red when agitated,[9] and a Species: N. monachus
grey to black "hood". It has fairly uniform dark brown body
Binomial name
plumage. It has broad wings for soaring and short tail feathers.
This is one of the smaller Old World vultures. They are 62– Necrosyrtes monachus
72 cm (24–28 in) long, have a wingspan of 155–180 cm (61–
71 in) and a body weight of 1.5–2.6 kg (3.3–5.7 lb).[10] Both (Temminck, 1823)
sexes are alike in appearance, although females often have
Synonyms
longer eyelashes than males. Juveniles look like adults, only
darker and plainer, and body feathers have a purplish sheen.[8]
Neophron monachus (Temminck,
1823)
Voice

Usually silent, but gives a shrill, sibilant whistle during copulation, and thin squealing calls both at nests
and carcasses.[8]

Nesting, breeding and behaviour

It breeds in a stick nest in trees (often palms) in much of Africa south of the Sahara, laying one egg. Birds
may form loose colonies. The population is mostly resident and sedentary, rarely moving more than 200
km.[8]

Distribution
Although hooded vultures have relatively small home ranges, they are widely distributed across Africa. It
occurs in Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia, Niger and Nigeria in West Africa; in East
Africa it is found in Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia; in southern Africa it has been
recorded in northern Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.[5]

Within South Africa, the species is essentially restricted to the Kruger National Park and surrounding
protected areas in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, though vagrants have been recorded further west
in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.[11]

Ecology
Like other vultures hooded vultures are scavengers, feeding mostly
from carcasses of dead animals and waste which they find by
soaring over savanna and around human habitation, including
waste tips and abattoirs.[4] They do however also feed on insects,
and conglomerate in large numbers during insect emergences, for
example termite emergences where they associate with Steppe
Eagles.[5][8] They are non-specialised, highly versatile scavengers Vultures feeding on a dog carcass in
and are commensal with humans in West Africa.[12] They often Gambia, West Africa
move in flocks (50-250 individuals) in West Africa, especially
when foraging at abattoirs or elephant carcasses,[8] while in
southern Africa they are solitary and secretive, making them hard to spot when nesting.[11] They are known
to follow scavenging African wild dogs and hyaenas.[8]

This vulture is typically unafraid of humans, and frequently gathers around habitation. It is sometimes
referred to as the “garbage collector” by locals. In Ghanaian universities, a significantly higher number of
hooded vultures exist in the residential parts of the campus relative to the non-residential parts, and densities
are correlated with the academic calendar, with numbers of individuals increasing during school terms.[13]
45% of students at these campuses are defecated on by hooded vultures at least once a month, according to
interviews.[13]
Southern African hooded vulture populations have smaller home ranges than most other Old World vulture
species for which data exists, though less is known about home ranges of East and West African
populations.[3] They are most active during the day, and their ranges are smaller in the dry breeding season,
when their movement is constrained by a nest site location to which they must return regularly to incubate
their eggs and provision their fledglings.[3] In both the northern and southern hemisphere populations,
breeding takes place in the dry summer season.[5]

They prefer to build nests in well-foliaged trees along watercourses, with the nest placed a prominent fork
within the tree canopy at an average height of over 15m.[11] They have however also been observed in a
variety of biomes, some where tall trees are rare. They have been recorded in open grasslands, deserts,
wooded savanna, forest edges and along coasts.[5] They tend to occur in higher densities where populations
of larger Gyps vultures are low or nonexistent.[14] It occurs up to 4,000 m, but is most numerous below
1,800 m.[5]

Hooded vultures lay a clutch of one egg, and the incubation period lasts 46-54 days, followed by a fledging
period of 80-130 days. Young are dependent on their parents for a further 3-4 months after fledging.[14]
Measurements of nesting success at the Olifants River Private Nature Reserve, South Africa showed
success of 0.44-0.89 offspring per pair per year in 2013 and 0.50-0.67 offspring per pair per year in
2014.[5]

Population trends
While the populations in Gambia are relatively stable, it is declining almost everywhere else in its range at
an average rate of 83% (range 64–93%) over 53 years (3 generations).[5][15] Its total population is estimated
at a maximum of 197 000 individuals.[16] Some declines have been reported to have occurred in only 20
years, almost approaching the speed and extent of the Asian vulture crisis of the 1990s.[15] The highest
regional density of hooded vultures is in western Gambia.[6]

Status and threats

The species has been uplisted from its previous IUCN status of endangered to critically endangered, since
the species is going through a very steep decline in population, owing to various factors including
poisoning, hunting, habitat loss and degradation of habitat.[17] Hunting is the most well-known threat to the
species, however, poisoning has been shown to have the highest impact on the population. Poisoning of the
species has been both unintentional and intentional, with unintentional poisoning being caused through the
poisoning of other animals which the species feeds on. Hunting on the other hand is caused by vultures
being used by people in traditional medicine and cultural beliefs and as a food source, particularly in West
and southern Africa.[18][15] Researchers interviewed vendors in street markets in northern Nigeria who
were selling parts or entire carcasses of hooded vultures as well as other African vulture species (though
hooded vultures made up 90% of vultures on sale). They found that 40% of traders were selling the
vultures for spiritual healing and 25% for human consumption.[19]

Many West and southern African cultures believe vulture body parts cure a range of physical and mental
illnesses, improve success in gambling and business ventures, or increase intelligence in children.[15]
Consumption of vultures as bushmeat in Nigeria and Ivory Coast may be of regional concern, but smoked
vulture meat is traded and consumed internationally.[15] Secondary poisoning with carbofuran pesticides at
livestock baits being used to poison mammalian predators is also an issue in East Africa.[5]
On the 20th of June 2019, the carcasses of 468 white-backed vultures, 17 white-headed vultures, 28
hooded vultures, 14 lappet-faced vultures and 10 cape vultures), altogether 537 vultures, besides 2 tawny
eagles, were found in northern Botswana. It is suspected that they died after eating the carcasses of 3
elephants that were poisoned by poachers, possibly to avoid detection by the birds, which help rangers to
track poaching activity by circling over the locations of dead animals.[20][21][22][23]

The species may also be threatened by avian influenza (H5N1), from which it appears to suffer some
mortality and which it probably acquires from feeding on discarded dead poultry.[24] Another suggested
cause of decline is the decline in the number of trees preferred by hooded vultures for nesting, such as
Ceiba pentandra in Senegal.[5]

Conservation action
Raptors are protected in many West African and Northeastern countries and in South Africa under the
United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), in the
Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (the
‘Raptors MoU’).[25] This plan includes the Hooded vulture.[26]

Systematic monitoring and protection schemes for African raptors, including the hooded vulture, exist and
some populations occur within protected areas.[5] It has been suggested that the best way to slow the
decline of vulture populations in Africa, and avoid a massive decline on the scale of the Asian vulture crisis
of the 1990s in which populations declined 95% because of the veterinary drug Diclofenac used in
livestock whose carcasses were fed on by vultures, pesticides and poisons need to be regulated and limited
by governments in countries where the hooded vulture occurs.[15]

Gallery

Egg Close-up of the head Adult in Moremi G.R., Juvenile in

Botswana Sabi Sand
G.R.,
South
Africa

Juvenile in The Gambia

References
1. BirdLife International (2017) [amended version of 2017 assessment]. "Necrosyrtes
monachus" (https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22695185/118599398). IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species. 2017: e.T22695185A118599398. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-
3.RLTS.T22695185A118599398.en (https://doi.org/10.2305%2FIUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22
695185A118599398.en). Retrieved 20 February 2022.
2. Lerner, Heather R.L.; Mindell, David P. (2005). "Phylogeny of eagles, Old World vultures,
and other Accipitridae based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA". Molecular Phylogenetics
and Evolution. 37 (2): 327–346. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.04.010 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2
Fj.ympev.2005.04.010). PMID 15925523 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15925523).
3. Reading, Richard P.; Bradley, James; Hancock, Peter; Garbett, Rebecca; Selebatso, Moses;
Maude, Glyn (2019-01-02). "Home-range size and movement patterns of Hooded Vultures
Necrosyrtes monachus in southern Africa". Ostrich. 90 (1): 73–77.
doi:10.2989/00306525.2018.1537314 (https://doi.org/10.2989%2F00306525.2018.153731
4). ISSN 0030-6525 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0030-6525). S2CID 92021847 (https://ap
i.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:92021847).
 4. Wim C. Mullié ... (2017), "The decline of an urban Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus
population in Dakar, Senegal, over 50 years", Ostrich, 88 (2): 131–138,
doi:10.2989/00306525.2017.1333538 (https://doi.org/10.2989%2F00306525.2017.133353
8), S2CID 90555471 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:90555471)
5. "The IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species: Hooded vulture" (https://www.iucnredlist.org/spe
cies/22695185/118599398). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 29 June
2019.
6. Jallow, M., Barlow, C., Sanyang, L... (2016). "High population density of the Critically
Endangered Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus in Western Region, The Gambia,
confirmed by road surveys in 2013 and 2015". Malimbus. 38: 23–28 – via ResearchGate.
7. "Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) in Explore Raptors: Facts, habitat, diet | The
Peregrine Fund" (https://www.peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/Hooded_Vulture).
www.peregrinefund.org. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
8. Hockey, PAR; Dean, WRJ; Ryan, PG (2005). Roberts Birds of Southern Africa: 7th Edition.
Cape Town, South Africa: Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. p. 486.
9. Sinclair, Ian; Hockley, Phil; Tarboton, Warwick; Ryan, Peter (2011). SASOL birds of Southern
Africa. Struik Nature. ISBN 978-1-77007-925-0.
10. "Hooded Vulture" (http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-hooded-vulture.html). Oiseaux-
Birds.com. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
11. Roche, Chris (2006-04-01). "Breeding records and nest site preference of Hooded Vultures
in the greater Kruger National Park". Ostrich. 77 (1–2): 99–101.
doi:10.2989/00306520609485515 (https://doi.org/10.2989%2F00306520609485515).
ISSN 0030-6525 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0030-6525). S2CID 84338833 (https://api.se
manticscholar.org/CorpusID:84338833).
12. Barlow, Clive; Filford, Tony (2013). "Road counts of Hooded Vultures Necrosyrtes monachus
over seven months in and around Banjul, coastal Gambia, in 2005". Malimbus. 35: 50–55.
13. Gbogbo, F.; Awotwe-Pratt, V.P. (March 2008). "Waste management and Hooded Vultures on
the Legon Campus of the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana, West Africa". Vulture News.
58: 16–22.
14. Ferguson-Lees, J.; Christie, D.A. (2001). Raptors of the World. A&C Black.
15. Ogada, Darcy; Shaw, Phil; Beyers, Rene L.; Buij, Ralph; Murn, Campbell; Thiollay, Jean
Marc; Beale, Colin M.; Holdo, Ricardo M.; Pomeroy, Derek (2016). "Another Continental
Vulture Crisis: Africa's Vultures Collapsing toward Extinction" (https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fco
nl.12182). Conservation Letters. 9 (2): 89–97. doi:10.1111/conl.12182 (https://doi.org/10.111
1%2Fconl.12182). ISSN 1755-263X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1755-263X).
16. Ogada, D. L.; Buij, R. (2011-08-01). "Large declines of the Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes
monachus across its African range". Ostrich. 82 (2): 101–113.
doi:10.2989/00306525.2011.603464 (https://doi.org/10.2989%2F00306525.2011.603464).
ISSN 0030-6525 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0030-6525). S2CID 84665667 (https://api.se
manticscholar.org/CorpusID:84665667).
17. Hooded Vulture, species fact sheet (2020). "CR Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus" (htt
p://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22695185). datazone.birdlife.org/. BirdLife
International. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
18. Henriques, Mohamed; Granadeiro, José Pedro; Monteiro, Hamilton; Nuno, Ana; Lecoq,
Miguel; Cardoso, Paulo; Regalla, Aissa; Catry, Paulo; Margalida, Antoni (31 January 2018).
"Not in wilderness: African vulture strongholds remain in areas with high human density" (htt
ps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791984). PLOS ONE. 13 (1): e0190594.
Bibcode:2018PLoSO..1390594H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018PLoSO..1390594
H). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0190594 (https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0190594).
ISSN 1932-6203 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1932-6203). PMC 5791984 (https://www.ncb
i.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791984). PMID 29385172 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
29385172).
19. Buij, Ralph; Saidu, Yohanna (2013-01-01). "Traditional medicine trade in vulture parts in
northern Nigeria" (https://doi.org/10.4314%2Fvulnew.v65i1.1). Vulture News. 65 (1): 4–14–
14. doi:10.4314/vulnew.v65i1.1 (https://doi.org/10.4314%2Fvulnew.v65i1.1). ISSN 1606-
7479 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1606-7479).
20. "Over 500 Rare Vultures Die After Eating Poisoned Elephants In Botswana" (https://www.ndt
v.com/world-news/over-500-rare-vultures-die-after-eating-poisoned-elephants-in-botswana-
2056740). Agence France-Press. NDTV. 2019-06-21. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
21. Hurworth, Ella (2019-06-24). "More than 500 endangered vultures die after eating poisoned
elephant carcasses" (https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/21/africa/botswana-vultures-endanger
ed-elephants-intl-hnk/index.html). CNN. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
22. Solly, Meilan (2019-06-24). "Poachers' Poison Kills 530 Endangered Vultures in Botswana"
(https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/poachers-poison-kills-530-endangered-vultur
es-botswana-180972477/). Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
23. Ngounou, Boris (2019-06-27). "BOTSWANA: Over 500 vultures found dead after massive
poisoning" (https://www.afrik21.africa/en/botswana-over-500-vultures-found-dead-after-mass
ive-poisoning/). Afrik21. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
24. Ducatez, Mariette F.; Tarnagda, Zekiba; Tahita, Marc C.; Sow, Adama; de Landtsheer,
Sebastien; Londt, Brandon Z.; Brown, Ian H.; Osterhaus, Albert D.M.E.; Fouchier, Ron A.M.
(2007). "Genetic Characterization of HPAI (H5N1) Viruses from Poultry and Wild Vultures,
Burkina Faso" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2725980). Emerging
Infectious Diseases. 13 (4): 611–613. doi:10.3201/eid1304.061356 (https://doi.org/10.3201%
2Feid1304.061356). ISSN 1080-6040 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1080-6040).
PMC 2725980 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2725980). PMID 17553279
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17553279).
25. "Birds of Prey (Raptors) | Raptors" (https://www.cms.int/raptors/en/legalinstrument/birds-prey
-raptors). www.cms.int. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
26. "Nations List 12 Vulture Species to Tackle Population Decline in Africa | Raptors" (https://ww
w.cms.int/raptors/en/news/nations-list-12-vulture-species-tackle-population-decline-africa).
www.cms.int. Retrieved 2019-07-31.

Sources

BirdLife International (2017). "Necrosyrtes monachus" (https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/2

2695185/118599398). IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017:
e.T22695185A118599398. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22695185A118599398.en
(https://doi.org/10.2305%2FIUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T22695185A118599398.en). Retrieved
11 November 2021.

External links
Hooded vulture - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds (http://sabap2.adu.org.z
a/docs/sabap1/121.pdf).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hooded_vulture&oldid=1152506638"