'Vultures are intentionally poisoned by poachers'

The two cases of mass vulture poisoning that occurred in May in the Lowveld can be described as “a vulture genocide”.

- - Annelie Coleman

This was according to Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, director of the Griffon Poison Information Centre. Nearly 300 vultures were poisoned in the two incidents.

In the first incident, 123 vulture carcasses were found at a poisoned elephant carcass in the Mahlangeni section of the Kruger National Park on 6 May.

The elephant was killed by means of a cable snare laced with a highly toxic poison. Eighty-four of these birds were, however, rescued.

The second poisoning took place in a game reserve near Marloth Park in Mpumalanga, where 100 critically endangered vultures, including 90 white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus), nine hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus), and one white-headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis), died near a poisoned warthog on 19 May.

Speaking to Farmer's Weekly, Verdoorn said that nearly all of the birds in the second case were breeding adults.

He added that white-headed vultures were especially endangered, with only about 60 breeding pairs left in the country.

“We are on the brink of the breeding season of the white-backed vultures.