Mass vulture poisoning in Kruger National Park: a conservation crisis

MORE than 100 vultures have died in a mass poisoning at the Kruger National Park - one of the largest vulture poisoning events in Southern Africa.

- STAFF REPORTER

The incident in the Mahlangeni Section of the Park was detected by the Endangered Wildlife Trust's (EWT) wildlife poisoning surveillance and detection system which triggered an alert, flagging suspicious activity in a remote section of the park.

Within hours, a joint SANParks and EWT team mobilised, arriving on site. There, they discovered the grim reality: a mass poisoning event involving hundreds of vultures. This was the result of an elephant carcass laced with highly toxic agrochemical pesticides - poison laid by poachers to harvest body parts for the illegal wildlife trade.

A total of 116 vultures were found dead at the scene.

“The initial responders - six SAN-Parks rangers and two EWT officials - found two vultures alive, but severely affected, roughly 500 metres from the poisoned elephant carcass. These were immediately treated using emergency vulture first aid: atropine, activated charcoal, and fluid therapy,” SANParks and EWT said in a statement yesterday.