Ruppell’s Griffon SSP

Photo: Mel Hall, Disney's Animal Kingdom

Conservation Status

According to IUCN, Ruppell’s are native to: Algeria; Benin; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Côte d'Ivoire; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Kenya; Mali; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria; Rwanda; Senegal; Somalia; South Sudan; Sudan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Togo; and Uganda, and vagrant to: Botswana; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Egypt; Lesotho; Mozambique; Namibia; Portugal; Sierra Leone; South Africa; Spain; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.

Visit the African Vulture SAFE page for more information on the African Vulture Crisis
According to Ogada et al. (2016), the projected population decline in Rüppell’s griffon vultures is 97% within 3 generations.
The largest threat facing vultures is poisoning, primarily via agricultural pesticides. The main sources of poisoned carcasses are a) elephants or rhinos killed by poaching whose carcasses are poisoned to deter circling vultures from giving away the location of poaching events, b) large predators such as lions that were poisoned in retribution for killing livestock, and c) feral dogs that were poisoned in an effort to curb their population growth. The trade in traditional medicine and collisions with electrical infrastructure are also important causes of population decline.

Date of Last PVA/B&T Plan	Current Population Size (N)	Current Number of Participating AZA Member Institutions	Projected % GD at 100 Years or 10 Generations	SSP Program Designation	5 Year Target Population Size	Space Needed (Target population minus current space)	Recent 5 Year Population Trend (increasing, decreasing, or stable)
5/10/2017	61	15	75.8%	Yellow SSP	75	75-61 = 14	Increasing