Vulture Rehabilitation Centre Hartbeespoort
Vultures form an important ecological component of our natural environment, cleaning up dead carcasses and decreasing the spread of some diseases. The relationship between vultures and people is also a venerable one – vultures played roles in some early societies, including the Egyptian and the Hindu societies; vultures continue to be used as symbols or metaphors in modern societies; and vulture body parts are used in muthi.
Today, vultures face an unprecedented onslaught from human activities. They have to cope with electrocutions and collisions with electrical structures, poisonings, land-use changes, a decrease in food availability and exposure to toxicity through veterinary drugs, to list just a few of some of the challenges facing vultures today.
Vultures, positioned at the top of the food chain, are an indicator of the health of the environment below them – and dependent for their survival on a healthy environment. As such the work of the Vulture Conservation Programme’s (“VulPro”) work is intended and expected to impact on many other aspects of the environment – beyond vultures.
VulPro, established in 2007, approaches vulture conservation in an integrated, multidisciplinary
fashion, with the benefits from the programme accruing to both vultures and society at large. VulPro combines education and good science, with networking, capacity building and knowledge generation. The veterinary disciplines of toxicology, pharmacology, clinical pathology and medicine are combined with the science of cell-phone telemetry and the banking of genetic resources, with the goal being to positively influence the well-being of our natural resources to the ultimate benefit of society. In this regard, VulPro engages in a number of interrelated activities, and uses a variety of resources, in endeavouring to meet its objectives.
GPS tracking devises are used to determine foraging and home ranges of a large number of vultures in Southern Africa. The output from this research allows for the monitoring of capture-release free-ranging vultures and for the mapping of areas for further actions (such as community education and the safeguarding of vulture food through the monitoring of vulture restaurants).
VulPro conducts and facilitates educational talks and interaction with both tame and wild vultures at the rehabilitation and educational centre in Hartbeespoort, and regionally, through the follow-up of vulture home range and feeding studies.
Undertaking and publishing studies determining drug residues in carcasses, and lobbying
communities and society for appropriate actions to be taken to benefit our natural environment and to ameliorate the effects of drugs on vultures are part of VulPro’s work. This work includes proactive efforts to determine, evaluate and monitor veterinary drugs or chemical residues in carcasses that are made available to vultures; building dedicated laboratory models for predicting avian toxicity; using mass awareness campaigns to involve and get feed-back from the public; determining the home ranges of vultures, so as to better understand their foraging habits; and collecting appropriate biological samples for current and future project use.
Through partners, such as the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria, potentially harmful veterinary substances similar to diclofenac, can be identified and monitored. Where necessary, VulPro www.vulpro.com can engage in or support lobbying for the removal or responsible use of these substances.
With the many threats vultures are facing throughout Southern Africa, vulture rehabilitation has
become an essential part of the work of VulPro. Collecting grounded, injured, poisoned and disabled vultures around South Africa, special emphasis within the Gauteng, North West and Limpopo Provinces, VulPro is able to save many vultures that would otherwise have met untimely deaths. By doing this, VulPro is in a position to release those vultures that are fit and healthy and to keep in captivity those that cannot be released, for breeding, research and educational purposes. Vulture populations are in many instances so depleted that the rehabilitation and release of individual birds can be ecologically and genetically significant. At present, VulPro operates the only facility approved by Gauteng Nature Conservation and recognised by North West Nature Conservation for vulture rehabilitation.
This multidisciplinary and networking programme looks at conservation holistically, by focusing on the vulture at the top of the food chain and gaining new knowledge on the environment below and so also impacting on society’s well-being.
Objectives:
- Vulture rehabilitation
- Collect injured, grounded and disabled vultures
- On-going monitoring of released vultures using patagial tags and GSM/GPS devices
- Distribution, dispersal and foraging ranges of vultures
- Tracking of the Magaliesberg Cape Vultures using patagial tags and GSM/GPS devices
- Monitoring of vulture restaurants and recording vulture re-sightings i.e. patagial tags and photographs
- Tracking African White-backed and Cape Vultures which frequently visit Mankwe Nature Reserve, adjacent to Pilansberg
- Monitoring and tracking Cape Vultures from the Manoutse breeding colony near Kruger National Park
- Recording and keeping a database of all vulture re-sightings related to the B-series of patagial/wing tags
- Cape Vulture breeding monitoring (four largest colonies globally):
- Magaliesberg
- Kransberg
- Blouberg
- Manoutsa
- Veterinary and ecological research related to vultures:
- Researching the effects of lead and NSAID’s on vultures
- Surveying and studying vulture restaurants
- Researching the role vultures play in the spread of diseases
- Ongoing research related to providing veterinary treatment for vultures (i.e. for snake bites, poisonings etc.)
- Cape Vulture breeding and reintroduction programme (Namibia)
- Creating a safer environment for vultures in Namibia.
- Rebuilding the Cape Vulture population in Namibia.
- Monitoring the Cape Vulture population in Namibia as part of a national avian scavenger population monitoring programme.
- Providing an effective information, outreach, education and information sharing platform for vulture conservation as well as facilitating collaborative conservation support in Namibia and the region.
- Vulture educational and awareness programmes
- Holding talks and public displays
- Conducting workshops and training
- Assisting with farmer/vulture conflicts