Wildlife ACT: vulture ringing

Posted by Bronwen Reynolds on 19 October 2010

Nobody told me that I would almost land in the vulture’s nest.

Perhaps I would have thought twice before climbing into the Eskom cherry picker and being hoisted skywards until I humbly shared a view that is reserved for magnificent vulture parents – a fledging Lappetfaced vulture looking wide-eyed up at me.

It turns out there is a lever on the side of the “bucket” which you can lock to prevent it from rocking and almost tipping you out, while you gently lift the vulture chick from its nest.

This week, Wildlife ACT accompanied Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff and members of Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) as they visited vulture nesting sites within Mkhuze Game Reserve and surrounds, to tag vulture chicks in the nests with patagial (wing) tags.

These plastic colour-coded tags each have a letter and number, the combination of which uniquely identifies the bird and the area in which it was originally tagged. These tags can then be read in the field, through binoculars, meaning that there is no need to re-trap the birds. The tags allow for the collection of valuable data including monitoring of breeding success, foraging distances, etc.

Standing in that cherry picker bucket, looking down on the now empty nest as the Mkhuze Section Ranger settled the chick for the trip back to the ground to tag and sample it, I was struck by the elegant simplicity and cleanliness of the nest.

Vultures truly have an undeserved reputation as being nothing more than “ugly scavengers”, when in truth they are magnificent and threatened creatures who play a vital role in the ecosystem. It is our responsibility to preserve the remaining populations of vultures within Southern Africa, and raise awareness about the status and importance of these vulnerable birds.

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