Vultures - BirdLife South Africa (2024)

Lead poisoning in vultures

As obligate scavengers (i.e. animals that rely almost exclusively on dead animals as a source of food), vultures are especially susceptible to dietary toxins. Vultures obtain fragments of lead by feeding on the carcasses or gut piles of animals that have been shot with lead ammunition. These fragments are obtained from supplementary feeding sites (so-called “vulture restaurants”) when carcasses are put out that are not properly vetted, from informal vulture restaurants on hunting farms (when entrails or flesh removed around the wound channel are made available to scavengers), from culling operations (when carcasses, with the best of intentions, are left in the field for scavengers to dispose of) and, to a lesser extent, from hunting operations (when wounded animals are not recovered).

Engagement and the national Lead Task Team

Since 2016 BirdLife South Africa has been actively engaging with members of South Africa’s shooting community to find a constructive solution to the problem of lead poisoning in vultures. Linda van den Heever (Vulture Project Manager) represents BirdLife South Africa on the national Lead Task Team (a working sub-group of the National Wildlife Poisoning Prevention Working Group), with the main aim to minimise the risk of lead poisoning to all wildlife, including vultures.

Vulture Safe Zones

In October 2017 the Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (MsAP) was accepted by the 12th CMS (Convention on Migratory Species) COP held in Manila. One of the actions suggested by the MsAP is the creation of so-called Vulture Safe Zones, where owners of large tracts of land commit to managing their properties in ways that will provide safe havens for existing vulture populations. Importantly, this approach encourages positive action for vultures, focusing less on prohibition and negative messaging, and more on sound environmental practices that could provide the landowner with reputational and economic benefits.

What is a Vulture Safe Zone?

In a southern African context, a Vulture Safe Zone has been defined as “an appropriately sized geographic area in which targeted conservation measures are undertaken to address the key threats relevant to the vulture species present. VSZ are developed in southern Africa as an approach to complement national and international efforts to reduce the impact of existing and emerging threats to stabilise and promote recovery of existing vulture populations.”

Initially implemented by countries in Asia (where vulture populations were decimated by use of the veterinary drug diclofenac) and recently in Zambia, Vulture Safe Zones offer conservation solutions that are effective, realistic and achievable at grassroots level. The reasons for vulture declines in Africa are varied and complex, and the application of Vulture Safe Zones should be adapted to reflect this complexity. The campaign focuses on private property owners within the borders of South Africa, who will be asked to sign a pledge in which they undertake to manage their properties in a vulture-friendly manner.

The agreements will follow a practical approach, with property owners committing to ensure that, amongst others:

1. All electricity pylons in the Vulture Safe Zone are fitted with measures or designed to prevent vulture electrocutions and/or collisions;
2. Water reservoirs are modified to prevent drowning;
3. Breeding vultures (whether cliff or tree nesting) are protected from disturbance;
4. All carcasses provided as supplementary food at vulture restaurants are lead- and contaminant-free;
5. Poison is not used as a deterrent to mammalian predators such as jackal and caracal;
6. Lead-free ammunition is used to cull game/livestock;
7. All vulture populations are monitored;
8. Any vulture mortalities are reported to BirdLife South Africa.

One of the biggest challenges facing vulture conservation in South Africa (as is the case elsewhere in Africa) is the fact that vultures cover enormous distances, often in one day, with no regard for country borders. Any attempt at conservation will have to be cognisant of the fact that a vulture protected in one region may not benefit from such protection in another. It is therefore vital that cross-border collaboration be promoted, as had been done between Lesotho and South Africa for the benefit of the Bearded Vulture. The establishment of Vulture Safe Zones is a practical, grassroots level approach that could be implemented in all countries to safeguard nesting sites and minimise threats around sites within the SADC region.

Tswalu Kalahari Reserve

Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (Northern Cape Province) was declared South Africa’s first Vulture Safe Zone on International Vulture Awareness Day (7 September 2019). Lappet-faced Vultures are known to breed on the reserve, and White-backed Vultures, that breed further north along the Kuruman and Limpopo Rivers, frequently visit the area to bathe and to forage. Reserve management has made the switch to lead-free ammunition, have committed to include vulture nest monitoring in their annual game counts and have ensured that all water reservoirs have been fitted with escape mechanisms for floundering birds. BirdLife South Africa would like to congratulate reserve management in setting the trend for the implementation of Vulture Safe Zones in South Africa.

Zululand Vulture Safe Zone

Following the successful implementation of South Africa’s first Vulture Safe Zone at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in September 2019, BirdLife South Africa announced the establishment of South Africa’s second (and largest) Vulture Safe Zone on 5 September 2020, International Vulture Awareness Day. South Africa’s beautiful Zululand region, situated in northern KwaZulu-Natal, supports five of South Africa’s nine vulture species. It is also an important breeding area, particularly for the tree-nesting White-backed Vulture. Following a two-year project driven by Clive Vivier, owner of Leopard Mountain Lodge, landowners in the region have now committed to managing their properties as Vulture Safe Zones.

Covering the length of the Zululand Important Bird and Biodiversity Area, the newly established Zululand Vulture Safe Zone stretches from Pongola Game Reserve in the north to the borders of the Mkuze section of iSimangaliso National Park in the south. Bound by the N2 highway to the east, it encompasses 200,000 ha and 14 properties, including Manyoni Private Game Reserve and the Mun-ya-wana Conservancy (Phinda Game Reserve). Some of the landowners provide food for the vultures at supplementary feeding sites. A mobile chat group is used to monitor the whereabouts of the birds, and to manage a coordinated feeding programme in the hopes that a consistent supply of food will minimize the lure of carcasses laced with poison by poachers. In addition, they will now ensure that carcasses and gut piles put out at so-called “vulture restaurants” are lead- and contaminant-free, that water reservoirs are fitted with “escape” ladders to prevent drownings, and that lead-free ammunition is used for hunting and culling. Select members of staff will receive poison response training, powerlines will be monitored, and nesting vultures will be kept free of disturbance.

Lapalala Wilderness

Lapalala Wilderness was declared a Vulture Safe Zone in September 2021. Situated near the town of Vaalwater in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, the 48,000 ha reserve encompasses some of the most pristine habitat in the Waterberg region. Its proximity to Marakele National Park and several important Cape Vulture breeding colonies make its establishment as a Vulture Safe Zone of special significance. The reserve’s vision emphasises the interconnectedness of man and nature, supporting sustainable conservation practices. By providing safe habitat for vultures, and securing the invaluable ecosystem services they provide, the establishment of the reserve as a Vulture Safe zone supports this ethos.