Featuring: Hans Pohlmann, Jaap Denee, Christina Ieronymidou, Vilppu Valimaki, Roland van der Vliet, Bettina Boemand, Lukasz Czajka, Sophie Jacquier, Lennaert Steen, Menotti Passarella,
Last month we introduced you to Team VCF who are competing in the 24 hour international birding race, Champions of the Flyway, in southern Israel. With just over a month to go before our team head out to count the number of species on one of the most important migratory pathways we need your help. We want to raise as much awareness as we can about the plight of vultures in Africa and are today launching #GoVultures.
#GoVultures
We need your help to raise awareness and funds, and get the message out there: the fact that vultures are important to the ecosystem, but are currently under immense pressure. You can help to do something about that! We need your help in two ways:
1. Go Vultures!!
We want to bring people from all across the world to share on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever social media you use, their enthusiasm for vultures! To be part of the #GoVultures, all we need you to do is create a short video and post it on whatever social media you use, using the hashtags #GoVultures and #COTF19 saying
“Go Vultures from……. [insert country] “.
Be creative, be imaginative, be bold, be brave, be original. We are currently thinking on prizes for the best entries. Alternatively you can send us your video by sending it by email to our Communications Officer Dean Veall info@4vultures.org
2. You can help with a donation!
Please use the Team VCF JustGiving page or Donate via the Vulture Conservation Foundation Paypal account by clicking the donate button below.
The money will be completely used for vulture conservation.
A race for vultures
The vultures of the Great Rift Valley and across Africa are currently in crisis. This is the result of poisoning and illegal killing, with seven of the 11 species on the continent (such as the Cape and Lappet-Faced Vultures) currently on the brink of extinction. This year, the Champions of the Flyway has partnered with Birdlife Kenya to raise funds and awareness for vulture conservation in the Great Rift Valley, helping to protect and save the vultures of the East Africa. And we need your help to succeed! We will be partnering with BirdLife Kenya to engage in a large scale project that will include funding a special Rapid Response team on the ground to identify carcasses and treat them, before their effects unwittingly spread to vultures, nature’s original garbage disposal experts. We will also be funding the development of several educational programs with the local people of the Mara area and Narok province in Kenya, aiming to leave a lasting legacy for the Rift Valley’s vulture conservation. In 2018 the Champions of the Flyway raised over $100,000 Can YOU help us match that?
Champions of the Flyway
Running since 2014 The Champions of the Flyway is an annual real-time bird spotting race, organised by BirdLife partner, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), as part of the Eilat Bird Festival. The race pitches small teams of world class birdwatchers against each other in a ‘race’ to spot the highest number of birds within a 24 hour period. The race takes place at the end of March during the annual spring migration at Eilat in Israel at the southern tip of the Red Sea where migratory birds stopover to and from their northern breeding grounds. The Eilat Mountains create a natural bottleneck for millions birds with nearly two hundred species including two dozen species of raptors including the migratory Egyptian Vulture, waders and passerines migrating northwards creating one of nature’s most spectacular sights.
