Understanding how people feel about vultures and what makes them act in ways that help protect them is important if the decline of vultures is to be stopped and turned around.
In Ghana, people still don't understand how important they are to keeping the environment free of dead animals and stopping the spread of disease. We don't know much about how Ghanaians feel about vultures.
Structured questionnaires and key informant surveys were used, and 460 respondents from all over Ghana were chosen at random.
Over 85% of those who answered knew what a Hooded Vulture was. 56% of those who answered said that Necrosyrtes monachus and vultures were important to their culture.
Diseases in livestock are said to be treated with chemicals like diclofenac sodium, which vultures are very sensitive to around the world. Vultures also don't have access to dead livestock because 53% of respondents bury them.
78% of the people who answered the survey said that a new way to poison animals is to use furadan to kill them for bushmeat, then take their guts out and feed them to vultures.
Most of the people who answered the survey agreed that vultures are important and should be protected. The biggest threats to vultures in Ghana are poisoning, habitat loss (especially the loss of the silk cotton tree, Ceiba pentandra), and the trade in vulture parts for traditional medicine.
To protect vultures and make sure they don't go extinct, people were told to keep raising awareness, have a positive attitude toward the environment, start vulture conservation programs, and protect breeding sites.