16 May Vultures in poison peril

Vultures in South Africa are facing a perilous time with alarming population declines over the last decade. Vultures have a notoriously bad reputation and are often associated with death and disease and considered dirty animals. But, they are horribly misunderstood. Vultures are actually very meticulous about cleanliness and spend hours each day cleaning their feathers after feeding. Their feathers need to be clean for flight as vultures do not flap their wings, they soar through the sky. Vultures are highly efficient apex predators and scavengers and can travel hundreds of kilometres within a day. They have excellent eyesight and can spot a carcass up to 6km away. They have thick and strong beaks that tear into flesh and can efficiently strip a carcass within hours. Vultures have extremely acidic stomachs, full of enzymes that enable them to digest what other animals cannot. These enzymes are unique to vultures and are not found in any other species. Because of this, vultures are key role players within any ecosystem and have a pivotal role in regulation and maintenance services, such as waste recycling and disease control. Vultures are considered indicator species for a healthy ecosystem and without them, dead animals would naturally be removed slower in the environment, resulting in a build-up of harmful bacteria and other pathogens, leading to disease outbreaks in animal and human populations.

South Africa is home to six vulture species, listed from vulnerable to critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). These include the vulnerable cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres), the near-threatened bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), the endangered lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotis) and three critically endangered species, the white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus), white-headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis) and hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus).

Vultures face numerous threats including habitat loss, declining food availability, shooting, trapping, electrocution and collisions with power lines, along with direct persecution. However, the most prominent cause for mass vulture deaths is attributed to poaching and poisoning for the illegal harvesting of body parts and trade for belief-based purposes. These beliefs include thinking it brings people closer to their ancestors, improves ones eyesight and brings good fortune. Poisoning accounts for 60% of vulture mortalities each year and has a dual purpose for poachers. One, is for the illegal trade of body parts but two, poachers will also poison a carcass in the hopes of neutralising their circling above, as this often alerts authorities to the presence of the poacher’s locations. Large poisoning events have a long-lasting impact and can regionally affect populations of vulture species as they are the most widely affected birds of prey.

In March of 2024, the Kruger National Park (KNP) lost 86 vultures in a mass poisoning event adding to the more than 2,000 vultures killed in the park over recent years. Poachers are using a highly toxic insecticide (aldicarb) which has been banned for over a decade, as a weapon for killing vultures. These poachers snared a buffalo, harvested the meat and poisoned the carcass with the aim of killing the vultures, so as not to alert authorities of their whereabouts. Any animal that ingests it will be dead in minutes and along with vultures, other species are inadvertently also poisoned. Unfortunately, a black-backed jackal, hyena, two bateleur eagles, a tawny eagle and a marabou stork were also killed as they scavenged from the poisoned buffalo carcass. This is an unfortunate but common occurrence.

Some vulture species are threatened with extinction within our lifetime and unless we can halt these declines and mitigate these persistent threats, the consequences of losing our vultures will be catastrophic and far reaching. Some species have declined by over 95% in the last three decades. However, there is hope! VulPro is a non-profit conservation and rehabilitation group in South Africa, working to protect vultures and is the only vulture organisation of its kind in Africa. VulPro works towards preventing the extinction of African vultures through rehabilitation of injured vultures, research and education with farmers, landowners and communities, captive breeding programmes along with release and relocations. VulPro is at the forefront of population restocking of declining African vulture species and this year marks the largest vulture relocation project ever undertaken, with 160 cape and white-backed vultures relocated to the Shamwari Private Game Reserve. Other collaborating organisations working hard to monitor, rehabilitate and release vultures include Project Vulture and the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) ‘Vultures for Africa’ programme. Additionally, Moholoholo Animal Rehabilitation Centre situated near Hoedspruit and one hour away from Askari, found in a recent review that of the many vultures treated over the years, there was an extremely high success rate of release back into the natural environment. Any vultures observed by Askari are recorded and if it has a tracking device or tag, is immediately reported to Moholoholo.

Across Africa, numerous Vulture Safe Zone’s (VSZs) are being created with the realisation of how dire the future for vultures is and has spurred positive action and collaborative engagement across Africa. There is hope that, in collaboratively protecting large collections of African vultures, dispelling beliefs and persecution, preventing poaching and poisoning, along with mitigating injury through infrastructure, this will secure their future for generations to come.

If you are interested in learning more about vultures and their protection or donating to the cause, visit:

VulPro: https://www.vulpro.com/

Moholoholo Animal Rehabilitation Centre: https://www.moholoholo.co.za/facility/wildlife-rehabilitation-centre/

Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT): https://ewt.org.za/what-we-do/saving-species/vultures/

References

Desk (2024). Africa’s largest vulture relocation marks a conservation milestone. Lifestyle and Tech. https://lifestyleandtech.co.za/just-life/article/2024-01-23/africas-largest-vulture-relocation-marks-a-conservation-milestone

IUCN (2024). Vultures. Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/search?query=New%20World%20Vultures&searchType=species

Ledwaba (2024). Kruger Park vultures felled by poachers’ highly toxic poison. Daily Maverick. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-04-28-kruger-park-vultures-felled-by-poachers-highly-toxic-poison/

Moholoholo (2024). Moholoholo: “We’re losing a significant percentage of the total vulture population. Blog. https://www.conservationafrica.net/blog/moholoholo-were-losing-vultures

The World (2022). Southern African vultures subject to poisonings, extinction. Environment. https://theworld.org/stories/2022/09/09/southern-african-vultures-subject-poisonings-extinction

Santangeli, A., Lambertucci, S.A., Margalida, A., Carucci, T., Botha, A., Whitehouse-tedd, K. and Cancellario, T. (2024). The global contribution of vultures towards ecosystem services and sustainability – an experts’ perspective. iScience, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004224011477

VulPro (2024). Saving Africa’s vultures. VulPro. https://www.vulpro.com/