Durban — Africa’s largest vulture relocation project takes flight next week when at least 140 birds from the VulPro facility in Hartbeespoort in the North West are moved to the Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape.
VulPro founder Kerri Wolter said that was the first phase of the project in which Cape vultures and African white-backed vultures, which were all non-releasable, would be moved and the Eastern Cape would be their breeding hub.
Hartbeespoort would remain open as its main rehabilitation and education centre, and part of the second phase of the project which would involve the relocation of mainly tree nesting species to other areas.
“Vultures are the fastest declining bird species globally and they are incredibly important to the health of our environment, and to help prevent disease spreads which would affect domestic animals in rural areas because our wildlife will ultimately affect every single one of us,” said Wolter.
All the birds to be moved to the Eastern Cape were fitted with tracking devices as part of the process which has the approval of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.
“The true measure of success is when those birds will breed naturally in the wild and then when they produce their own offspring, so hopefully the tracking devices will last for that length of time. They only start breeding at seven years of age but that is your true measure of success.”
Wolter said there were many requests to bring vultures back to the Eastern Cape and Shamwari was best suited to it, especially since its security was second to none.
She said that during the breeding programme, they had not wanted any of the chicks to be “imprinted to people” or become acclimated to people.
She said the Eastern Cape used to have a good population of Cape vultures but because of powerline infrastructure, wind farms and the indiscriminate use of poison, their numbers declined substantially.
Vultures were also highly sought after because many people believed their good eyesight made them or those who used them, clairvoyant.
“I believe the muti trade for belief-based purposes will be the biggest threat for vultures in Africa and we are seeing it increase exponentially every year. At one stage, matric pupils were using vulture brains so they would pass their matric exams. You just need one person to say it works and it creates a whole can of worms,” said Wolter.
Shamwari CEO Joe Cloete said it was the first Big Five game reserve in the Eastern Cape and the vulture relocation project was one of its most significant projects in the past 30 years.
“Vultures play a vital role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, are part of our natural heritage and are severely threatened. I cannot overstate how reintroducing Cape Vultures is a critical step in the continuing evolution of our conservation journey” he said.
In a previous interview with the Independent on Saturday, Cloete said Shamwari was all about conserving a vanishing way of life. He said that when the reserve was founded 30 years ago, the area had been decimated and most of the animals found in the Eastern Cape had been hunted out. It was Shamwari’s mission to conserve the animals and bring them back.
Cloete said they wanted to reintroduce the spotted hyena and the wild dog, but needed a big piece of land for that and would have to raise the money through local and international tourism.
Independent on Saturday