Hail may have killed rare vulture
Colorado zoo says a duck also died
Motswari was around eight months old when she smashed into a power line in South Africa.
She survived, but the injury robbed her of the key trait needed for vultures to eat and to live. Motswari’s cream, black-tipped wing was shattered. She could no longer fly.
But as a member of a longd-windling population of Cape vultures, an important link in an ecosystem endangered by human activity, Motswari was still vital to what’s left of her species.
Motswari was a member of an eight-vulture cadre sent to the United States to breed chicks in a race against encroaching doom, said Kerri Wolter, chief executive and founder of VulPro, a South Africa-based conservation group that helped get Motswari and others to the country.
She settled at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colo., becoming an icon for awareness and fundraising for the vastly misunderstood birds, Wolter told The Washington Post.
On Monday, softball-sized hail raked enclosures, striking guests, staffers and animals alike.
At least 14 people and a number of animals were injured, and hundreds of cars were damaged. Guests and staff were evacuated.
A 4-year-old Muscovy duck named Daisy was killed. Motswari, too, lay dead. She was 13.
Every dead Cape vulture impacts the species, which has declined as much as 94 percent in three generations, Wolter’s group said last year.
But there are fewer than 20 in the U.S., where conservationists focus on breeding in an effort to release more in the wild, Wolter said. Their work demands genetically pure birds — hatched at the glacial pace of one egg per year — to avoid specimens weakened by inbreeding.
Their offspring heading back to Africa need to be tough and Mostwari was as tough as they came, a mother in her breeding prime.
“It’s a massive loss,” Wolter said of her death.
It is unclear what led to Motswari’s death. The zoo did not respond to a request for comment. In its statement, the zoo said it was closed Tuesday so officials could clear debris and survey the “significant damage” to determine its reopening date.
It also unclear if the zoo had confirmed all animals were alive apart from Motswari and Daisy, or how many other Cape vultures the zoo now has, if any.
What is clear is the loss Motswari represents. Captive breeding remains a cornerstone of their survival.