On Wednesday 17 July, 119 vulture carcasses were found next to the carcass of a poached buffalo in the Kruger National Park. They were discovered in the Vlakteplaas section, reports Times Live.
Speaking to Times Live, SANParks spokesperson Ike Phaahla said rangers believed the carcasses to be approximately one week old. It was found that the poachers had cut out the meat from the buffalo after killing it and laced it with poison, which killed the vultures.
Phaahla continued by saying that poachers poison carcasses to ‘conceal their criminality to give themselves enough time to escape,’ reports Times Live.
With the sheer size of the park (it covers 2 million hectares) vultures play an important roll in alerting rangers to carcasses. To monitor every inch of the park permanently is practically an impossible task.
Phaahla stated that there were 117 white-backed vultures, 1 hooded vulture and 1 white-headed vulture. Two of the carcasses are being investigated to identify the poison that was used.
Image: Unsplash
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