Poachers kill 86 Kruger vultures
RELENTLESS poaching in the Kruger National Park (KNP) has killed more than 80 vultures.
The vultures were feeding on a dead buffalo that was laced with poison by poachers after snaring it.
Park ranger Joe Nkuna could not believe his eyes when he got to the scene to investigate the deaths. Nkuna was speaking to a media contingent that had been visiting the park this week to witness the impact of poaching.
When the KNP received a call from Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre about a tracked vulture which wasn’t moving, Nkuna, who has worked in the park for 29 years, assigned his team of rangers to go to the vulture’s last GPS location.
“When they got here, they found a snared buffalo. The poachers were able to harvest some meat from the buffalo and then the leftovers were laced with poison.
“The vultures came to clean up the buffalo carcass. But instead, the carcass cleaned them up … They had to radio me and I drove up and called the police to come and attend the crime scene … It was terrible and was not healthy,” Nkuna said
He said the park lost about 86 vultures, a black-backed jackal, two eagles and a hyena. He had no idea whether the poachers were able to harvest any body parts because they were completely decomposed.
Before attending the scene, SA National Parks regional rangers Don
English and section ranger Richard Sowry told the media about the implications and impact of poaching in the park. They said last year alone, they spent about R250 million to deter poaching.
“If you poison a carcass, anything that goes to the carcass is going to be affected. If you put in a snare, anything that walks by will be affected,” said English.
He said apart from the criminal aspect, poaching was mostly caused by poverty in the villages around the park because of unemployment.
Park officials had roped in the community in a bid to curb poaching.
“We have lost close to 2 000 vultures in the past few years. It has seriously impacted on the ecology of vultures,” English said.
Poaching in the park threatens the well-being of the park, as well as tourism that generates millions of rand for the national fiscus annually.
Sowry said it had become an everyday problem that was threatening the park’s very existence: “Poachers use all forms of methods including poisoning, which could be the worst kind because of the ripple effect it causes.”
He added that the poaching was unsustainable and caused cumulative damage to the economy.
“If we don’t deal with poaching, it could spell the end of the park. Economically, socially and ecologically, there will be consequences …
“Humans seem to think there would not be adverse problems from it; we all see the problems because we are all connected ecologically,” Sowry said.