Vulture activity benefits the people of Mekele in Ethiopia // Photo: nationalgeographic.com.
An interesting “cooperation” between scavengers and public utilities became known after the the publication of the results of a study in the journal Ecological Solutions & Evidence.
“Utilities” from nature
Residents of Mekele, the second largest city in Ethiopia (more than 600,000 people live here), slaughter more than a million cattle and chickens each year and then dump the remains on the streets. The vast majority of the organic waste is dumped on roadsides and other open areas, where it decomposes and releases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.
Spotted hyenas and hooded vultures, which are common in both Mekelle and other Ethiopian cities, eat rotting meat, bones and thus contribute to carbon dioxide retention. African wolves and stray dogs are not squeamish about this food either.
The study found that more than 1,200 metric tons of meat waste is discarded annually in Mekela, which is comparable to the total weight of 31,000 live sheep. Scavengers and some predators eat about half that amount and prevent more than 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere each year. Local utilities need more than $100k worth of resources to dispose of this much waste.
A radically different attitude
Scavengers are generally not sympathetic to people. Many people dislike them because of real or perceived threats. However, in this study, many respondents indicated that they were happy to coexist peacefully with these animals. “Although hyenas and vultures are often among the most persecuted species in Africa, they are considered ecologically important in our study area. This sets a unique precedent for the coexistence of wildlife and humans,” researchers from the Universities of Mekelle, Oxford and Sheffield (both in the UK) said in the report.
The model has shown that it can become effective not only in other Ethiopian cities, but can be scaled up in other African states where the problem of organic waste disposal is acute.
