Boost for vulture conservation in South Africa

Giving vulture conservation wings in Limpopo 

May 2013. The Endangered Wildlife Trust's Wildlife and Energy Programme (EWT-WEP), in partnership with Eskom Limpopo Operating Unit, the EWT's Birds of Prey Programme (EWT-BoPP) and the Vulture Conservation Programme (VulPro), is proud to announce the launch of the Limpopo Vulture Project. 

Tracking devices to be fitted

"The main aim of the project is to use Global System for Mobile (GSM) tracking devices to obtain further information about the movement patterns of the different vulture species in Limpopo. These data will enable Eskom to make informed and vulture-friendly decisions when new powerlines are planned and erected. The project will also look at the relationship between line faults on Eskom distribution lines and vulture movements, in an attempt to determine whether tracking data can be used to predict where line faults are likely to occur. This will enable Eskom to mitigate potential interactions pro-actively rather than reactively," commented Constant Hoogstad, Senior Field Officer of the EWT-WEP. 

Nine vulture species found in South Africa

Nine vulture species occur in South Africa. Seven of these are listed in the South African Red Data List, ranging from Threatened to Critically Endangered. These are: the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus (considered regionally extinct), the Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus, the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres, the Lappet-faced Vulture Torgos tracheliotus, the Hooded Vulture Necrosyrtes monachus, the White-headed Vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis, and the African White-backed Vulture Gyps africanus. 

Limpopo Province - Vulture restaurant

The Limpopo Province falls within the distribution range of most of these species, with the exception of the Bearded Vulture. Furthermore, one of the most active vulture restaurants in the country can be found less than 20km from the centre of Polokwane on the Mockford farm. This vulture restaurant regularly attracts species such as the Cape, White-backed, Hooded and Lappet-faced Vultures and recent records of Palm-nut Vultures. 

Continued

Blow for Egyptian vulture conservation as tagged bird is poisoned

Balkan Egyptian vulture conservation

April 2013. In 2012, an Egyptian vulture was found suffering from poisoning. The bird was cared for and recovered, and was fitted with a satellite tag before being released. He had recovered well enough to migrate all the way to Chad where he spent the winter.

In spring of 2013, he returned to the Balkans to breed, but, tragically, he was poisoned once again, and sadly this time he didn't survive. He was found dead in Greece, just 200 kilometres from his breeding grounds in Bulgaria, along with another Egyptian vulture that had also been poisoned, probably when eating a carcass that was laced with poison to kill foxes or wolves.

Heavy blow
This is a heavy blow against the efforts to save this species from extinction in the Balkans and Greece. In one single incident, we have lost 5% of the species breeding population in Greece.

Worryingly, this incident was only discovered as this bird was tagged and his location could be followed practically to the metre on a daily basis. The actual magnitude of the losses - of Egyptian vultures, and of many other endangered wildlife species, from the illegal use of poison is difficult to estimate due to its "silent killer" nature, but examples such as this speak for themselves.

The fight against poison is not an easy one as it involves a wide range of socio-economical parameters and certainly needs the joint efforts of all parties involved (livestock breeders, hunters, etc) with that of the public authorities at the lead. Unfortunately, this is not the case at the moment in Greece, where authorities together with society, seem to be indifferent to the problem.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/egyptian-vulture-conservatoin.html

Bird conservation: Learning about vultures and how to protect them

LAHORE:

Children from several public schools participated in an event organised by the World Wide Fund-Pakistan (WWF) on Saturday to create awareness about conservation of vultures.

The event was held at the Lahore Zoo. It included screening of a 40-minute documentary titled Missing Vultures. The documentary was produced by Ali Ejaz and funded by the WWF.

There were several gaming competitions to educate students about vulture conservation and a lucky draw in which four families won a free visit in November to the WWF’s Vulture Conservation Centre at Changa Maanga.


Continued: http://tribune.com.pk/story/429940/bird-conservation-learning-about-vultures-and-how-to-protect-them/