More than 100 vultures poisoned in Kruger National Park

A total of 108 vultures, which includes four different species, recently died in the Kruger National Park following a poisoning incident.

According to SANParks, rangers on patrol discovered the carcase of a buffalo that appeared to have been laced with poison on August 11. They found the dead vultures as well as a dead hyena, likely to have fed off the carcase.

With the assistance of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), live birds found on the scene were rushed to Shingwedzi and Mohololo Rehabilitation Centre for treatment. Twenty-four of the birds are still being treated and are recovering well.

Yolan Friedmann, CEO of the EWT, expressed her concern that given the critical status of vultures globally, poisonings at this scale places the species at increasing risk of extinction. The species involved include the white-backed vulture (critically endangered), which made up more that 100 of the fatalities, the white-headed vulture (critically endangered), the Cape vulture (vulnerable) and the lappet-faced vulture (endangered).

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The scene had been cordoned off for further investigation and the carcases burnt to ensure there were no further poisonings. Initial indications are that some of the carcases were harvested for their body parts. SANParks also confirmed that the matter has been referred to the SAPS for investigation. The type of poison used is still being analysed.

The KNP’s head of scientific services, Dr Danny Govender, said incidents like these are not that common in the park, but the impacts of each incident is usually large, since vultures are highly mobile and are shared regionally.

EWT’s manager of its Birds of Prey Programme, Dr Gareth Tate, said wildlife poisoning continues to be sporadic across the Lowveld and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTCA) (which includes South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe), although there has been a steady increase over the past 10 years.

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“Some years are certainly worse than others. We often see poisoning incidents spiking over a short period of time within localised sites across the GLTCA region. It is important to note that many of these incidents unfortunately go undetected and unreported as they occur in vast wilderness landscapes.” Tate said he was confident their records are underreporting the severity of the threat.

Govender said vultures are also affected by other types of poisons, such as lead (from ammunition) and veterinary pharmaceuticals. They may also be vulnerable to climate change and rising temperatures affecting optimal nesting temperatures (especially if you build your nest at the very top of tall tree, with blazing solar radiation and no shade). This is something we are hoping to investigate in the future.

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“We are also interested to find out whether vultures (especially rare species such as lappet-faced and white-headed vultures) may be impacted by elephant impact on large trees.

“So considering the important ecosystem service they provide, we are quite worried about all these confounding effects affecting these species.
“I think it is important to reiterate that poisoning is not merely a wildlife or conservation problem; these poisons make it into our food chain, our water supply and our traditional medicine, so the public must make the links and calls for safer and more responsible import, sales, storage, use and disposal of these very dangerous groups of chemicals.”.

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