Endangered Vulture Conservation in the Southern Drakensberg with Wildlife ACT

Wildlife ACT is excited to share increasingly well-nigh our Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project, which focuses on endangered vulture conservation in this trappy region of KwaZulu-Natal. The Project, which falls under the our Vulture Conservation Programme, calls on volunteers from virtually the world to squire in daily on-the-ground conservation efforts stuff made in the Southern Drakensberg region.

Despite stuff hair-trigger to our ecosystems, vulture numbers are in serious decline, with only 50 to 100 tastefulness pairs of Bearded Vulture in South Africa and Lesotho and well-nigh 4,500 tastefulness pairs of Cape Vulture left in South Africa. Now welcoming volunteers, the Project aims to remoter local conservation efforts for endangered and priority wildlife species, particularly the vulnerable Cape Vulture and the regionally critically endangered Bearded Vulture. 

Made possible through a collaboration between Wildlife ACT, the Drakensberg Conservation Initiative and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, this project forms part of Wildlife ACT’s ongoing efforts to monitor and protect endangered and priority species and to squire in constructive management of protected areas. The endangered vulture conservation speciality involves the monitoring of nesting sites, managing and maintaining unscratched vulture feeding sites, conducting a long-term remote camera trapping survey in the area, responding to emergency events, and more. 

“We are excited well-nigh the Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project and squint forward to focusing some significant energy on the regionally critically endangered Bearded Vulture,” says Chris Kelly, co-founder of Wildlife ACT. “Vultures play a hair-trigger role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, and their ripen is a serious concern. We hope to make a positive impact on the conservation of these magnificent birds within the Southern Drakensberg region.”

Highlighting Vulture Conservation

The Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project is primarily defended to conserving vultures and protecting the two cliff-nesting species of vulture found in the region – the Cape Vulture and Bearded Vulture – which are at risk of extinction.

The Bearded Vulture is of particular snooping to the project due to its regionally critically endangered status on the IUCN Red List and a low population estimate of 50 to 100 tastefulness pairs in South Africa and Lesotho. Over the past century, this species has experienced a significant subtract in numbers, resulting in a geographically isolated population serving to the Maloti-Drakensberg mountain range.

Vultures are subjected to several dangers, including poisoning, electrocution, collisions with energy infrastructure, habitat loss, and supplies shortages. Not only are these birds vital components of the ecosystem, but they moreover possess a digestive system that contains special acids capable of handling numerous diseases that are potentially hazardous to human beings, making their protection critically important for preventing the spread of disease.

“Vultures provide vital ecosystem services in our natural, agricultural, and rural environments,” explains Wildlife ACT’s Vulture Conservation Programme Manager, Anel Olivier. “The important role they play in the cycling of nutrients through the highly-efficient disposal of organic waste from the environment is of utmost importance to human health and environmental integrity. They are well-timed to efficiently dispose of rotting mankind and bone, as well as other organic waste, thereby reducing the spread of disease amongst wildlife and livestock, as well as warming the risk of pathogen spill-over to humans.” 

Vulture Conservation in the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site

The Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project takes place both in and virtually the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site in South Africa, a crucial stronghold for several threatened and endangered species. The Heritage Site is a vast protected zone spanning over 240,000 hectares and stretching withal the verge of South Africa and Lesotho. This protected zone is home to an incredible diversity of plants and animals, including over 2,000 species of plants and a variety of rare and endangered unprepossessing species, including the Cape and Bearded Vulture. It is an important site for endangered vulture conservation.

“One of the unconfined things well-nigh this Project is that it demonstrates the importance of conducting conservation work outside of protected areas as well as inside of them. We are fortunate to have a number of local landowners supporting conservation efforts by offering our team wangle to their properties in order to monitor nests and self-mastery surveys. Without their support, we would risk missing out on vital information,” says Phillip Swart, Priority Species Monitor, Southern Drakensberg. 

Join Wildlife ACT in Endangered Vulture Conservation

Through Wildlife ACT’s Volunteer Model, conservation enthusiasts from virtually the world and all walks of life, are worldly-wise to squire with hair-trigger on-the-ground conservation work as well as essential Project funding. Volunteers are invited to this new Project to wits something completely different. From hiking the World Heritage Site and viewing unrenowned birdlife to stuff part of innovative feeding sites and witnessing the ultra rare Bearded Vulture in flight; everything well-nigh this Project offers a memorable experience.

During their time at the Project, volunteers live in a farmhouse situated in the buffer-zone surrounding the Maloti-Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site, surrounded by scenic scenery. Volunteers can expect to live like a local and enjoy stuff immersed into the farming polity of Underberg. Days end off with a beer on the deck watching the sun fall overdue the mountain-scapes as you strain to hear the nightlife come alive. 

We squint forward to welcoming you to the Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project and know that you will fall in love with it, just as we have. Click here to wield and support endangered vulture conservation.

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