Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Martínez de Lecea F., Hernando A., Illana A. & Echegaray J. (2011) Cannibalism in Eurasian Griffon Vultures Gyps fulvus. ARDEA 99 (2): 240-242
We describe an observation of Griffon Vultures Gyps fulvus killing and eating a conspecific in Álava, northern Spain. We put this observation in the context of previous reports of cannibalistic behaviour in vultures. The reduction of livestock carcasses available to scavengers in the wild, a result of the carcass removal policy adopted by EU countries after the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak, could have contributed to this behaviour.


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