Death circles over Botswana’s vultures

Mqondisi Dube | Monday October 10, 2022 06:00

The recent poisoning of 50 white-backed vultures within the Chobe National Park has left authorities baffled.

Body parts of the critically endangered birds of prey were removed, the first reported incident in Botswana.

The vultures’ body parts are believed to carry medicinal value and are mostly used by traditional healers. Vultures’ feathers, beaks, feet, claws, brains, and bones are targets for body parts harvesters with a reportedly thriving market in West Africa and Asia.

The parts are used by traditional healers in therapeutic remedies, which has left the vultures vulnerable to poaching. Recent studies show that the vulture’s head is culturally the most important body part for treating human ailments. Ailments allegedly treated by vultures’ body parts include rheumatism, headache, bed wetting, and diabetes. The parts are also believed to protect against witchcraft.

Until the recent Chobe incident, poisoned vultures in Botswana were found with their body parts intact and in fact, these incidents were associated with poachers intentionally poisoning the birds as they believe they blow their cover in their illicit activities.

Circling vultures alert game rangers to poaching activity and poachers usually lace animal carcasses with poison to eliminate the possibility of being trailed.

In the last decade, at least 2,000 vultures have been poisoned in Botswana, some succumbing to agrochemicals used by farmers targeting predators and other pests.

With the vulture mortalities rising, Botswana is stepping up efforts to preserve the unspectacular yet useful bird. Vultures remove pathogens and toxins from the environment, meaning they have a key role to play in the ecosystem.

Birdlife Botswana CEO, Motshereganyi Kootsositse said public awareness has been ramped up.

“We work with a lot of communities in Botswana basically sensitising on the importance of bird conservation not necessarily to the government but to their livelihoods as well. Our approach has been to engage kids so that as they grow up they have a different perception.

“We do a lot of school engagement, from primary to university level,” Kootsositse said.

He said following the recent incident where vulture parts were harvested, they would consider engaging traditional healers.

“It is an eye-opener for us,” the CEO conceded.

“We are now thinking, maybe this has been happening and not been reported.

“I think it is high time we change the strategy or increase our stakeholder engagement to involve traditional healers to gauge the extent to which they use vulture parts in Botswana.

“That is one stakeholder we have not engaged.

“We need to interrogate the belief system. From the top of my head, I can say mainly Batswana are Christians, but I know there is a significant number of people who also believe in traditional beliefs. “So we may need to establish the extent to which this belief is there in Botswana that translates to or that links to the use of vulture body parts.”

He said the use of agrochemicals was a concern and Botswana might consider banning their use.

“It is unfortunate that when you talk about vultures, they are not charismatic species and do not draw the kind of attention in the world space that cheetahs, lions, and elephants do.

“Government is doing a lot planting anti-poaching personnel but there is a lot of work that needs to be done outside protected areas,” Kootsositse said.

Conservationist, Neil Fitt says public education is the key.

“Education, education, it’s really it,” he said.

Fitt said the harvesting of body parts was rare, although within the region there have been some reported cases.

“My suspicion is that the parts have gone over the border, but we can only speculate.

“We need to work with the police and customs people. We need to bring the borders into the picture a lot.

“We have a good canine unit and we can utilise this. We are talking about small quantities (of body parts),” he said.

Regarding agrochemicals, Fitt believes the country has good regulations surrounding their usage.

“It’s only when people use them for what they are not intended for, that it becomes a problem,” he said.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks’ Dr Kabelo Senyatso said they are equally concerned about incidences of vulture poisoning.

“In terms of what we are doing, thus far we have been working with NGOs that are spearheading the actions.

“We found it important that we address the issue holistically, so we are developing a vulture action plan that will bring all the pieces together,” Senyatso said.

He said the department has been working with the Ministry of Agriculture to prevent the use of certain agrochemicals. Senyatso said farmers are primarily targeted as vultures help keep away some diseases from the environment, making it important to protect the birds.

He said the harvesting of vulture parts in the Chobe incident is not in line with Batswana’s behaviour.

“It is in sync with what happens elsewhere on the continent, particularly in West Africa and some countries in southern Africa.

“In as much as illegal off-take by traditional Batswana doctors can be of concern, given the evidence we have got in terms of harvesting and trade in vulture parts, we believe the market is outside of the country.

“We need to work with neighbouring countries to help curb this,” Senyatso said.

He said the protection of vultures is on the agenda of CITES’ meeting to be held in Panama next month.

“The primary interest is that the trade in vulture parts is the primary driver that has brought vultures on the CITES agenda,” he said.