Abstract

Vultures are one of the most threatened bird groups globally. Although many of the threats faced by vultures have been identified, the impact of human activities on the social life of vultures has received little attention. In this paper, we emphasize the need to integrate vulture sociality into conservation practice. First, we summarize current knowledge on vulture social behavior, and the evolutionary and ecological roots of their breeding systems. We describe the existence of contrasting gradients in social foraging strategies and hierarchical social structures among colonial and territorial breeders associated with species (and population) reliance on carrion differing in size and predictability. We also highlight the potential role of vulture gatherings in maintaining population-level social structures and for mate-finding given high mate-selectivity. Next, based on this social framework, we discuss the impact of human activities on social foraging, territory structures, resource partitioning processes, and mating dynamics. However, little is known about how disruptions of social habits may have contributed to vulture population declines and/or may impede their recovery. Lastly, we provide directions for future research on vulture socio-ecology that may improve current conservation efforts. We encourage researchers and wildlife managers to pay more attention to natural carrion diversity underlying vulture social system diversity, especially when implementing supplementary feeding programs, and to consider the complex mating and settlement dynamics in reintroduction programs. Overall, we stress that understanding the complex social life of vultures is critical to harmonize their conservation with anthropogenic activities.

中文翻译：

---

将秃social的社会行为纳入保护实践

摘要

秃鹰是全球受威胁最大的鸟类之一。尽管已经确定了秃鹰面临的许多威胁，但是人类活动对秃鹰的社会生活的影响却鲜有引起关注。在本文中，我们强调了将秃v社会融入保护实践的必要性。首先，我们总结了有关秃鹰社会行为的现有知识，以及它们的繁殖系统的进化和生态根源。我们描述了在社会觅食策略和等级社会结构中与物种（和种群）相关的依赖于腐肉的大小和可预测性不同的社会和阶层结构中存在不同的梯度梯度。我们还着重强调了秃gathering聚会在维持人口层次的社会结构和寻找高配偶选择率的配偶中的潜在作用。接下来，基于这个社会框架，我们讨论人类活动对社会觅食，领土结构，资源分配过程和交配动态的影响。然而，人们几乎不了解破坏社会习惯可能如何导致秃鹰种群减少和/或可能阻碍秃鹰种群的恢复。最后，我们为秃鹰社会生态学的未来研究提供了指导，以改善当前的保护工作。我们鼓励研究人员和野生动植物管理者更加注意秃鹰社会系统多样性背后的自然腐肉多样性，尤其是在实施补充饲养计划时，并考虑重新引入计划中复杂的交配和定居动态。总体而言，我们强调，了解秃鹰的复杂社会生活对于使其与人类活动相协调至关重要。