Wildlife poachers in Africa are suspected of targeting vultures by poisoning the carcasses that they feed upon, causing an unprecedented decline in the birds’ population.
Vultures are caught in the cross-fire of rampant poaching because they typically congregate at and feed on a freshly killed animal, drawing the attention of game rangers. To avoid this, poachers are said to inject the carcass with poison, turning it into a fatal meal.
Nearly 1,500 of the birds have been killed in the past two years in southern Africa, conservationists said. Last year, between 400 and 600 vultures were found poisoned from a single carcass in Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. Last month, 92 were wiped out in Botswana, while last week 15 died in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
A coalition of environmental and nonprofit organizations said recently that “widespread, increasing and mostly illegal use of poison is decimating African vulture populations, precipitating a biodiversity crisis with as yet uncharted human health consequences.”
The coalition said the situation is now “critical,” with population decreases of up to 97 percent for some species in West Africa in just over three decades, while 50 to 60 percent rates of decline were measured in the savannas of East Africa and Southern Africa. Without scavengers such as vultures, carcasses are left to rot and disease spreads among other animals, with consequences for humans living nearby, experts said.
“The poisoning of carcasses makes them particularly vulnerable. We can associate it with the poaching of large mammals like elephants and the poaching of buffalo for meat. If the poachers have little regard for large animals like elephants and rhinos, they probably have even less regard for vultures,” Andre Botha, manager of the birds of prey program at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, said on Thursday.
Vultures breed slowly, rearing only one chick per year, or in some species one chick every two years. Africa is home to 11 of the 23 species of vulture worldwide. Four species are now considered globally endangered and at risk of extinction, while three more are listed as vulnerable, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Species.
“There’s no doubt that there is great reason for concern and it will most certainly have an impact on the regional population. Governments are slowly becoming aware of the problem, but a lot more needs to be done. I don’t think it’s realistic to stop poisoning altogether, given the current context of poaching, but if it’s not managed properly, you could have massive losses,” Botha added.
In April, Darcy Ogada, a Kenyan-based conservationist from the Peregrine Fund, told a summit in Spain: “In India the almost complete disappearance of vultures has resulted in a strong increase of the feral dog population and associated rabies incidence, which has been estimated to have cost US$34 billion in human health costs alone. It is shocking that nobody seems to be worried about the massive vulture decline we are now witnessing across Africa.”
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was