More than 100 vultures perished at the Lionspruit Game Reserve
More than 100 critically endangered vultures have died in the latest mass poisoning incident, this time in a game reserve near Marloth Park in Mpumalanga.
The toll includes 92 white-backed vultures — 90% of which were breeding adults — nine hooded vultures and one male adult white-headed bird.
Earlier this month, more than 120 vultures died in the Kruger National Park after ingesting the carcass of an elephant that poachers had laced with poison, while a further 84 were successfully rescued by SANParks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).
The latest gruesome scene at the Lionspruit Game Reserve was located through real-time GPS tracking of several vultures, which were previously rehabilitated and released by vulture conservation organisation Vulpro and the Wild and Free Rehabilitation Centre, based in Hectorspruit.
Upon detecting abnormal movement, Vulpro notified Wild and Free, who then contacted Nkomazi municipal field rangers. Together, the team responded immediately to find a “catastrophic scene” with multiple dead birds lying around a warthog carcass.
There are no survivors and no body parts were taken. Two more carcasses were discovered by air, thanks to SANParks who joined in on the search. The carcasses were discovered on Sunday and were a “direct hit on vultures”, said Vulpro’s chief executive Kerri Wolter.
“It’s been a nightmare … It definitely wasn’t a fresh scene. What happens with tracking … because it’s breeding season, you’ve got to give vultures at least 24 hours to 36 hours to see if they’re going to move or not.”
This is because sometimes, depending on the weather, the birds will just roost on a tree for a day or incubate their eggs if it’s breeding season, she said. “You tend to give it a little bit of time otherwise you feel like you’re crying wolf the whole time. That’s why we waited.
“We could see that the birds weren’t moving for 36 hours and then after that we alerted Wild and Free to say, ‘This isn’t normal, can you guys go and check?’”
And, as there had been culling in the area, “we all thought they’re probably gorging themselves on all the culled carcasses … because there hasn’t been this mass poisoning in that particular area. Nobody really expected this. It was a bit of a shock to the system.”
According to Vulpro, this deliberate act had “caused irreparable damage” to already declining vulture populations. The incident underscored the growing and devastating impact of poisoning on South Africa’s critically endangered vulture populations.
Since no body parts were taken, Wolter said this latest slaughter does not appear related to muti.
“If these guys are wanting to get rid of the vultures as sentinels, they want to disturb breeding. In addition, if it’s breeding season, they know the birds are around their breeding sites and that they will be easy targets,” Wolter said.
According to Vulpro, samples have been collected, which will be submitted for toxicological testing to identify the poison used and supporting possible legal action.
These incidents not only wipe out critical scavengers but disrupt ecosystems, remove vital biodiversity and undermine decades of conservation efforts.
“With multiple incidents taking place in various regions across the Lowveld recently, we suspect they are aimed at detracting us from a bigger and even more devastating event in the near future.”
Vulpro is calling on the government and the national vulture poisoning working group to address the crisis before it’s too late.
“To lose this number of vultures, let alone adult breeding birds during breeding season, is an ecological crisis,” Wolter said. “We are genuinely terrified of what is going to occur next.
“We need to start asking the government really pertinent questions like what are they going to do to try and take control of the poaching and the poisoning that’s happening.”
The situation is dire, she added. “You just need another handful of incidents like this and the vultures in the Greater Kruger are going. We’re now at a stage where we’re asking people to stop releasing birds in that area. It’s no longer a matter of if a poisoning incident is going to happen; it’s when it’s going to happen.”
There has been a “frightening spike” in vulture poisoning incidents in recent months, said Gareth Tate, the head of the EWT’s Birds of Prey programme. At the start of the year, he remembered having conversations about how his unit’s work to detect and reduce poisoning had made waves.
“Then, just kind of out of the blue, we just started seeing more and more cases and different reasons for poisoning,” he said. “Certainly, the targets for the poisoning were different throughout the landscape that we are working in.
“But it certainly picked up … and the poisoning happening with the onset of the breeding season, it’s been really concerning.”
Since the mass poisoning in the Kruger earlier this month, Tate’s team has barely slept, along with the rehabbers from Moholoholo [Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre], the vets and some staff who didn’t sleep for 51 hours.
“It’s been a tireless effort to keep birds alive, and we’ve started releasing some of the surviving birds, which has been so encouraging and inspiring to see,” he said.
The area where the latest incident happened is a known poisoning site.
“I think we’ve had three altogether in that property on the adjacent small reserve. We were really blown away that such a big event occurred there … It’s unfortunately not a well-monitored area, in particular from our point of view, with such a big focus on northern Kruger into Mozambique, into Zimbabwe and Botswana,” Tate said.
“It’s a smaller reserve and, unfortunately, poachers have kind of a bit more free rein around a lot of the smaller reserves because they know their chances of being caught are a lot lower. I think they’re taking chances and laying poison to cause malicious damage to scavenger populations there.”
This latest incident is peculiar, he said. “It’s such an extensive one. I do think there’s a larger poison bait out there that maybe wasn’t found or there were just several incidents of different carcasses being put out there and laced with poison.
“It’s a peculiar one because there is not much law enforcement in those landscapes and the reason why they’re removing vultures from areas like the Kruger is they’re trying to disguise illegal activities. There’s a lot of bushmeat poaching happening in the Greater Kruger into Mozambique and Zimbabwe etcetera and these guys are snaring large animals.
“We suspect that they’re trying to remove vultures because they give away the location of a carcass. And then, let’s not forget that vultures are likely competition for these bushmeat poachers as they find carcasses before they can come and harvest the meat so we do suspect there is some element of competition happening out there.”
The Greater Kruger landscape cannot afford vulture losses, Tate added, especially at the onset of the breeding season. Vulture numbers in the Kruger have already declined by about 40% over the last 10 years.
“This really has the ability to cause local extinction. We are seeing the effects of the poisoning in the form of loss of a lot of adult and breeding population of birds. We are seeing a lot more youngsters now coming into the landscape from marginal populations.
“You kind of have this source and sink situation where, it’s sad to say, a lot of our large protected areas are now becoming a sink because the vultures are dying in these and they’re not filtering in from the surrounding landscapes, they’re being killed … It’s horrific what we’re seeing out there.”
Vulpro, together with Wild and Free, have established a vulture emergency response unit in Mpumalanga, delivering rapid onsite field response to poisoning and injury cases; expert veterinary care at Wild and Free’s onsite clinic and long-term rehabilitation and monitored releases through Vulpro’s national programme.
With support from conservation groups, WeWild Africa and Over and Above Africa, this initiative links veterinary expertise, field operations and conservation strategy across provincial boundaries, unified in the mission to stop vulture extinction.
This is not just about one event, Wolter said. “It’s about a systemic threat to our natural balance. We are fighting for every egg, every nest and every vulture’s future. Through science, integrity and collaboration, we will hold the line.”
Vulpro thanked the team on the ground for their “tireless and emotional task of decontaminating the scene”, preventing secondary poisoning to other wildlife.