ExploreGreen #ShockWildlifeTruths: Vultures on downward spiral to extinction

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The bushveld of Mkhuze Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal is one of South Africa’s last strongholds of wild nature. I had joined a small group of biologists on a field trip, spending several days walking through a remote valley.

Early one morning we encountered a horror scene.

We found several dead white-backed vultures hanging upside down from the branches of some thorn trees. The birds’ intestines had been ripped out, left to rot on the ground. Blood was splattered everywhere. Their feet and heads had been chopped off, and were also dangling from the branches. Despite the humidity and heat, goosebumps quickly covered my body.

The blood was still fresh and the bodies of the vultures were still warm. But it wasn’t just the sight and smell of the dead birds that shocked me. The ground was covered in human footprints. We were being watched, and the poachers were still nearby.

Fortunately, a potential shoot-out with poachers was avoided as the experienced team leader quickly guided us away from the site.


We returned later with anti-poaching rangers, and the vultures’ bodies and heads had been removed. But the birds’ feet remained. The poachers had been watching us, and while we’d gone looking for help, they had taken what they could and ran.

Like elephants, rhinos and lions, vultures in Africa are in dire straits. And while the charismatic species get all the attention, vultures are largely ignored.

In February this year, more than 110 white-backed vultures were poisoned by poachers in Kruger National Park. In October 2015, 46 were poisoned.


“Consider that there are only 3 000 white-backed vultures in Kruger, and only 7 500 in the whole country” said Andre Botha, manager of Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Bird of Prey program, and the co-chair of the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group.

“The Lowveld of South Africa, including Kruger, is the last place vultures survive in any great numbers in the country. There are far fewer of these vultures than rhinos in Kruger, and if the killing continues at the current rate, they will all be gone by 2034.”

There are eleven vulture species in Africa, and all of them are on a downward spiral to extinction. The International Union for Conservation of Nature upgraded four of these species to critically endangered in October 2015.