Leave Vultures to use their own Heads!

One of the outstanding characteristics of most Old World vultures is the fact that they possess extraordinary eyesight which, in species such as the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres pictured below, is believed to be at least ten times stronger than that of Homo sapiens. These birds rely on this extraordinary sensory ability to locate their food in the habitats where they occur. Apart from trying to locate a carcass themselves, vultures also look out for large predators on the ground and watch each other and other scavenging birds should anyone on the wing be lucky enough to find the food first.

Should a feeding opportunity be found and the first birds go down to feed, it is quite incredible to witness how vultures seem to converge from every direction in a matter of minutes to literally fill the sky above a carcass or feeding site. This is possible because vultures continually watch each other and can pick up concentrations of birds circling above a carcass from several kilometres away.

Adult Cape Vulture showing yellow iris

Vulture eyesight is a quality that many cultures have come to admire and aspire to and this could have been one of the qualities that fascinated the ancient Egyptians to the extent that vultures were considered important enough to worship and honour as gods. However, it is also this same characteristic that, in modern times, is leading to an incredible negative impact on vultures in certain areas. Many cultures in Africa have developed the belief that vultures contain within them the gift of clairvoyancy or clear-sightedness, insight and the ability to predict certain future events. Many humans of course also aspire to obtain these qualities and believe that, by purchasing and consuming vulture body parts, in particular the heads of these birds, they will be able to acquire them.

This has led to a significant impact on populations of vultures in certain parts of Africa due to the fact that this need has created an opportunity to generate income from the killing and harvesting of vultures for the sale of their body parts at "muthi"-markets by traditional healers. A study done by Myles Mander and Steve McKean in KwaZulu-Natal over several years indicate that, should the current rate of harvest continue, species such as White-headed Vulture Aegypus occipitalis and Lappet-faced Vulture Aegyous tracheliotus could disappear within the next 10 years while African White-backed Vultures Gyps africanus could go extinct in that province of South Africa in the next 15-25 years. According to the study, the current trade in vulture parts is estimated to exceed R1,2m and it is estimated that as many as 160 vultures are killed for the trade in eastern South Africa annually.

The picture at the top is that of a poisoned African White-backed Vulture found in Botswana while that at

the bottom is of a batch of vulture heads confiscated during a raid on a poachers camp in Tanzania.

The most popular method of harvest used for vultures is undoubtedly the poisoning of carcasses or the placement of smaller poisoned baits in the veld which, if consumed, kill these birds quickly and can lead to the death of large numbers of birds in one attempt. A range of substances are used locally, but the most popular by far is aldicarb, known in the trade as Temmik or more generally referred to as "Two Step". The latter name refers to the fact that ingesting a small dose of it will kill any animal almost instantly or before it can take two steps. In South Africa, we have experienced poisoning incidents in the last few years where as many as 50 vultures have been killed in a single incident, but cases of over 200 birds being killed have also been recorded previously. Should such events occur at certain critical times of the year when breeding birds may have small chicks in the nest, the loss of a single bird from a breeding pair could be devastating and will inevitably lead to the failure of such a breeding attempt. Birds can also be acquired by setting traps or shooting them from the air with a shotgun, but this is far less common than the use of poison.

EKZNW and the EWT-BoPWG about two years ago convened an action group to discuss options and plan concerted action to reduce the impact of this phenomenon on vulture populations in South Africa. One of the major concerns we have, is that people who use vulture parts could possibly suffer and even get killed due to secondary poisoning if that was the means used to acquire the bird in the first place. Some of the other actions agreed on by the Traditional Medicine Task Force were:

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  Reducing the consumption and demand for vulture parts through an awareness campaign targeting consumers and other role-players in the trade
  
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  Changing and creating policy to regulate the trade where necessary
  
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  Improving policing and enforcement of relevant laws to regulate the trade
  
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  Improving the understanding of the vulture trade through monitoring and research, allowing more focused interventions
  

In the last 12 months, however, information received from elsewhere in Africa seems to indicate that the use of vultures in traditional medicine is not only restricted to South Africa, but that harvesting also occurs in countries such as Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania. Tanzania in particular seems to have suffered pretty severely with evidence of more than 300 birds that have been killed in this year alone being received. Some of this evidence was recovered from poacher camps in the Serengeti and Selous where bags filled with vulture heads from a range of species have been confiscated by law enforcement officials. Although there is some speculation that these birds are harvested for the trade in South Africa, the extent of availability of vulture parts in markets in these countries seem to indicate that it is also used locally. The substance carbofuran seems to be the main poisoning agent used in East Africa and is widely available despite a recent ban on the sale thereof being imposed in Kenya.

Concern have also been expressed from elsewhere in Africa in this regard and in some areas people have also started targeting vultures as a source of protein and have started to use them as food. At least part of the huge decline in vulture populations in West Africa over the last 20 years is ascribed to this.

Because of these and other threats impacting on vulture populations on the continent, partners in the African Raptor Network are planning a pan-African Vulture Conservation Symposium in 2010 during which we plan to device a working strategy to address all threats facing vultures in Africa through concerted and coordinated action and working together to effectively address them. We are aiming to let people in Africa respect and understand the cultural and ecosystem benefits of conserving vultures and to support the principle that the birds should rather use their own heads rather than us!

Reference:

McKean, S. 2007. Vultures and Traditional Medicine. EWT-BoPWG Information Leaflet, Endengered Wildlife Trust