Nigerian Conservation Foundation, NCF, on Sunday called for the conservation of the declining vulture population in Nigeria to prevent extinction and looming epidemic.
Oladapo Soneye, Communications Manager, NCF, who made the call in a statement in Lagos, said that vultures are the only species of birds/wildlife that fed on carcasses without emitting disease into the atmosphere.
Mr Soneye said:" vultures are otherwise called nature's sanitary prefect, because they are the only species of bird/wildlife that feed on carcasses without emitting disease into the atmosphere, unlike other scavengers.
"The absence of vultures can lead to the outbreak of diseases such as anthrax, rabies, etc," he said.
Mr Soneye said that the NCF had embarked on a rescue mission tagged, "Supporting Community-based Monitoring and Conservation for Vulture Populations in Identified Vulture Safe Zones across Nigeria."
He said that the goal of the rescue mission was to tackle the declining population of vultures and its associated benefits to the people.
According to him, the project which is supported by the Indianapolis Zoo is part of a series of activities to conserve the remaining vultures in the country.
"The global community commemorated the International Vulture Awareness Day (IVAD) on Sept. 2.
"The NCF is using the opportunity to create more awareness about the importance of vultures in our society, and to harp on some critical efforts it has put in place to help improve the situation.
"The Vulture Safe Zones (VSZ) project is one of the foundation's efforts designed to protect the remnant vulture populations in their natural environment and support sustainable livelihoods," Mr Soneye said.
He added that the foundation also leveraged on the VSZ project to preserve the ecosystem benefits of the species and promote peaceful and positive coexistence between the people and vultures.
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