An adult white-backed vulture has traveled almost 1 550 kilometres away from where it was first tagged eight years ago.
On Monday, farmers in the Wakkerstroom area found the vulture lying in the road. Andrè Botha, Manager of the Birds of Prey Programme for the Endangered Wildlife Trust was immediately contacted.
He then contacted Ben Hoffman, who runs the Raptor Rescue facility in Pietermaritzburg. The vulture will be taken to Mr Hoffman soon. However, in the interim, Newcastle’s own ‘Bird Lady’, Sylva Fancis, has taken the old guy under her wing.
“Glenn Ramke contacted me on Monday. She runs the Crane Sanctuary in Wakkerstroom,” said Mrs Francis. “When she told me about the vulture, I was so excited. These vultures are not at all native to our area.”
The white-backed vulture is a typical vulture, with only down feathers on the head and neck. They have very broad wings and short tail feathers.
Interestingly, the white-backed vulture breeds in trees on the savannahs of West and East Africa, laying one egg at a time. The population is mostly resident to these areas.
Once Mrs Francis had the vulture in her care, she sent the ring number to Mr Botha, who confirmed some exciting news for the bird watching community.
In a post on Facebook, he explained:
“It turns out that this is a bird that I fitted with a ring and tagged during a mass capture exercise on Ocotber 4, 2006, more than eight years ago,” read the post. “The bird was also fitted with wing tags, but these have fallen off in the last few years. The ringing took place at REST’s facility North-East of Otjiwaringo in Namibia, more than 1 550 kilometres from where it was found and taken in for assessment. Always something new when working with vultures!”
Although there are no obvious signs of physical injury, the vulture seems unsteady when walking and seems to have limited sight.
“I spoke to Mr Hoffman, and he agrees that it could be a possible head injury which has impaired the birds’ vision,” said Mrs Francis.
Plans are being put in motion to have the vulture transported to Pietermaritzburg for further care.
“At the moment I have been feeding him with meat sponsored by a local butchery,” Mrs Francis continued. “I have also been advised to get some medicine from the vet, which will help in case of a head injury.”
