On Sunday
morning, a wildlife ranger in Nairobi, Kenya discovered 20 dead and 5
critically ill vultures slumped around a poisoned hyena carcass. Despite these
tragic casualties, a rapid response protocol set up with the help of BirdLife
almost certainly saved the lives of many more.
On the
morning of the 27th of January, Eric Ole Reson was on his routine patrol on the
Northern border of the Masai Mara when he spotted a group of vultures
struggling to fly. Concerned, he hurried towards them, and stumbled across a
tragic scene: 20 vultures lay dead around a hyena carcass, all of them Globally
Threatened species including the Lappet-faced Vulture (Endangered) and
Rüppell's Vulture (Critically Endangered). Beside them, six more vultures
thrashed about in a critically ill state.
But
despite this horrifying diorama, Reson didn’t panic or despair – he took action
immediately. He knew exactly what he needed to do thanks to Kenya’s Rapid
Response Poisoning Protocol, set up last year by a collaboration between
BirdLife partners and other Kenyan conservation organisations* to tackle the
growing threat of vulture poisoning.
Reson
works for the The Peregrine Fund and the Masai Mara Wildlife Conservancies
Association, organisations who regularly patrol the area for signs of incidents
just like these. Following protocol, Reson mobilized support from Kenya
Wildlife Service and Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, members of the collaboration,
who arrived on the scene in time to collect forensic samples and rescue the
surviving birds. They were joined by nearby community members who had also been
trained in the Rapid Response Poisoning Protocol.
5th
February 2019
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