Des restaurants pour les vautours

Abstract

The use of vulture restaurants has spread due to the massive decline of vultures during the XXth century because they appeared as conservation tool particularly suitable for vultures, obligate scavenging birds. This decline is usually multi-factorial and causes may vary considerably from region to region. The use of feeding places allows to counteract some threats, provided that they have been identified and that those feeding stations are used appropriately. Vulture feeding stations are often promoted by conservationists as nearly a miracle solution, but misuse can have disastrous consequences, especially given the social behaviour of the vulture and the intervention of a whole community of scavengers to degrade a carcass.