{"id":6930,"date":"2013-09-09T11:49:03","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T10:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4vultures.org\/blog\/massive-poisoning-of-vultures-reported-from-africa\/"},"modified":"2013-09-09T11:49:03","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T10:49:03","slug":"massive-poisoning-of-vultures-reported-from-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4vultures.org\/pt\/blog\/massive-poisoning-of-vultures-reported-from-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive poisoning of vultures reported from Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A poisoned griffon vulture in Spain. Poison is the biggest killer of vultures worldwide. Photo by Inigo Fajardo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Poisoning is the major threat affecting vultures worldwide \u2013 and the main cause of past and present vulture extinctions, at local and regional level. Poisoning has many different forms and contexts, and also has a variable distribution \u2013 while endemic in some regions (e.g. parts of the Mediterranean), other areas had been relatively free from this human-induced threat, including some areas of Africa.<\/p>\n

Recently, extremely worrying reports originating in that continent suggests the situation changed for the worse \u2013 with some of the worst poison-induced mass mortalities of vultures ever recorded. In one of the most recent events, at least 600 (six hundred) vultures are known to have died last July\u00a0in Namibia\u2019s Bwabwata National Park in the Caprivi Strip (now renamed the Zambezi region).<\/p>\n

Apparently these mass poisoning incidents are often related to elephant poaching \u2013 which continues at record levels throughout Africa.\u00a0 It seems that in some regions it has now become common practice for poachers lace the discarded elephant carcass (after extracting the ivory tusks) with cheap agricultural poisons to kill vultures in mass, because these birds circling in the sky soon after the poaching incident alert wildlife authorities to the location. By killing them, poachers aim to escape detection and continue to operate in the same area.<\/p>\n

Africa is home to 11 species of vulture, and almost all are declining very fast, and some are threatened with extinction. Research in West Africa, for example, has sown that vulture numbers have declined by 40% over the past 30 years, with some species registering a decline of up to 85% (Rueppel\u2019s vulture).<\/p>\n

There has been at least 4 such mass killings only this year, each involving hundreds of vultures, and the practice seems to be spreading, with incidents reported from Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia. Most of the birds killed in the recent incident in Namibia are African White-backed Vultures, currently listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Also, these poisoning events have a wide geographic impact \u2013 in the incident in Bwabwata National Park, two of the dead birds had been tagged originally in the Kimberley area of South Africa \u2013 almost 1 000km away. The use of poison also negatively affects a number of other large raptors, as well as lions, hyenas, jackals and other carnivores.<\/p>\n

Vultures are long-lived birds that reproduce very slowly, producing an average of one chick every other year.\u00a0 These mortality rates are well above what is sustainable, and is worsening the vulture decline across Africa, with serious ecological and human health consequences in the longer term. The precipitous decline in three vulture species on the Indian sub-continent over the last 20 years has caused several problems, including a proliferation of feral dogs and a substantial increase in diseases such as rabies.<\/p>\n

The VCF, together with some of our partners, has been working hard to eliminate poison in Europe. It is a long, hard, expensive task, but there is some good-practice and expertise available, that should be applied immediately in Africa.<\/p>\n

The first step is to review legislation \u2013 and implement processes that enable wildlife authorities to identify and follow up such cases, including the identification of the poisons used. Penalties should also be increased to act as a deterrent\u2013 experience from Europe shows that only when custodial sentences were introduced did locals take the issue seriously.<\/p>\n

Vultures are extremely useful in any ecosystem, as they are nature\u2019s most efficient and effective clean-up crew.\u00a0 Their place is in the African skies \u2013 help us keep them there.<\/p>\n

Recently the VCF has been supporting colleagues in Kenya to develop a forensic monitoring system to counter poisoning of wildlife in the country.\u00a0Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for some details. If you feel strongly about the poisoning of African vultures, and want to to do somethign about it, please send us a donation, and we will send the money to Kenya to continue to support this work.<\/p>\n

Please\u00a0send your\u00a0donations to the following\u00a0bank account\u00a0(marked Africa Vultures). Many thanks!<\/p>\n

Name: Stichting VCF<\/p>\n

Bank name: Triodos Bank nv<\/span><\/p>\n

BIC: TRIONLU<\/span><\/p>\n

IBAN: NL33 TRIO 0390 3553 80<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poisoning is the major threat affecting vultures worldwide \u2013 and the main cause of past and present vulture extinctions, at local and regional level. Poisoning has many different forms and contexts, and also has a variable distribution \u2013 while endemic in some regions (e.g. parts of the Mediterranean), other areas had been relatively free from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMassive poisoning of vultures reported from Africa - Vulture Conservation Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/4vultures.org\/pt\/blog\/massive-poisoning-of-vultures-reported-from-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"pt_PT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Massive poisoning of vultures reported from Africa - Vulture Conservation Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Poisoning is the major threat affecting vultures worldwide \u2013 and the main cause of past and present vulture extinctions, at local and regional level. 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