Vultures are under threat of poisoning by poachers

The vulture in Africa is under threat, and could become extinct in the near future. In the past two years alone, more than 1,500 have been poisoned by poachers, who lace elephant carcasses because circling vultures give away the location of their illicit activities.

This method has been recorded in Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia in recent years, according to a report presented at a recent international workshop on poisoning and vultures.

Faced with a growing human-wildlife crisis, a number of African, North American and European wildlife, vulture and poison experts gathered last month in southern Spain, at a meeting co-sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía, a wildlife organisation.

Despite vultures being protected species in most African countries, many have enacted legislation that criminalises their persecution, the situation is now critical, as vulture numbers are declining across the African continent.

Eight of Africa’s 11 species have declined at an average of 62 per cent across all regions over the past 30 years.

“In Kenya, many of our reports on vulture poisoning are related to predator poisoning. In areas such as the Maasai Mara where the human-wildlife conflict is entrenched, poisoning of predators and vultures is a huge problem,” said Dr Darcy Ogada, assistant director of the Africa Programmes, The Peregrine Fund.

He, alongside Martin Odino, Dr Joseph Lalah, and Dr Anthony Gachanja from Kenya attended the anti-poisoning workshop in Spain. 

Vulture species render invaluable eco-services that usually go unnoticed, such as feeding on the carcasses of dead animals. In rural Africa and other continents, this is important, particularly in areas with livestock and wild animals.

Dangers

Without these scavengers, carcasses are left to rot, disease spreads among and between other scavenger, carnivore and herbivore species, and sanitation around villages also decreases.

Feral dog populations explode in these villages as they fill the role of scavengers, and diseases such as rabies that they carry become a serious threat to human health. Hence, there is a need to protect these scavengers.

In Kenya in 2004, 187 vultures died on the Athi-Kapiti plains adjoining the Nairobi National Park after scavenging on a dead animal that had been laced with furadan, an agro-pesticide for crops.

Fewer than 10 cases related to vulture poisoning have been tested in the country over the past 10 years, with not a single prosecution.

Dr Erastus Kanga, a Kenya Wildlife Service senior assistant director for biodiversity research and monitoring is, however, hopeful that the organisation’s new forensic lab will help to track individuals behind particular poisoning incidents.

Aware of the vultures’ plight, Kenya hosted the first Pan African Vulture Summit in the Mara in April 2012.

“The Mara Vulture Summit (2012) gathered ideas and proposed actions for African vultures.  The idea was for an African vulture plan drafted following the meeting,” said Dr Ogada. 

However, there is no action plan as yet for Africa’s vultures for lack of funding.