Competition with free-ranging dogs significantly reduces food accessibility and intake by migratory vultures in the Thar Desert

The catastrophic decline of Gyps vultures in the 1990s across India severely disrupted traditional carcass-disposal systems, leading free-ranging dogs to become the primary consumers at many carcass dumps and supplementary feeding sites. As vulture recovery efforts continue, the presence of dogs at supplementary feeding sites may hinder vulture access through direct competition and aggressive interference. We examined carcass availability, dog population, and dog-vulture interference competition in the Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India, using a combination of observational surveys and field experiments. Dog abundance was positively correlated with carcass availability, even though the daily carcass supply at the largest dump site far exceeded the consumption capacity of the resident dog population, leaving a substantial surplus of unconsumed carcasses . In dog-free enclosures, vultures (Eurasian and Himalayan griffons) spent about twice as long at carcasses as at the dump site, and a higher proportion of arriving griffons fed than at open treatments with dogs . Dog presence also altered their temporal feeding patterns, restricting vulture activity largely to the afternoon, whereas in the absence of dogs, feeding was distributed more evenly across daylight hours. Vultures exhibited habituation to the predictable dump site at Jorbeer carcass dump, while showing reduced scavenging activities at carcasses placed at the landscape-level treatment in the surrounding landscape. Establishing more spatially dispersed dog-proof feeding sites could mitigate this effect by encouraging broader landscape-level foraging by vultures, thereby reducing their dependence on predictable food resources. This study underscores the need for strategic management of carcass dumps to better support vulture conservation. Key recommendations also include implementing targeted dog-management measures and installing dog-proof enclosures to improve food access for vultures.