First endangered Cape Vulture chick hatches in captivity in the Eastern Cape

Cape Vultures looking after their chicks. (Photo: Supplied)

By Estelle Ellis

12 Jun 2024

Staff at vulture conservation organisation Vulpro at Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape were celebrating the hatching of an endangered Cape Vulture chick this week – the first to be born in captivity in the province.

A tiny, pink, wrinkled Cape Vulture chick hatched at the Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape on Tuesday 11 June, bringing with it hope that an ambitious plan for the survival of the species will work.

By Wednesday afternoon, staff at the game reserve were waiting for a second chick to make its appearance.

Vulpro CEO Kerri Wolter said the “tiny yet mighty chick” was a huge milestone for their project to restore vulture populations.

The eggs are hatched in incubators, mom birds are given fake eggs to sit on, and then the hatched chicks are returned to the mom bird as researchers found that where vultures are held in an enclosure, others scratching around will sometimes break the eggs. She said at this stage they can’t tell the sex of the hatchling.

A Cape Vulture with a chick.
(Photo: Supplied)

Vulpro is the only vulture conservation organisation of its kind in Africa and is spearheading population restocking and supplementation to address the severe decline of African vulture species.

Also read in Daily Maverick: Reversing the Red — the battle to halt species extinction in South Africa

As adorable as the newcomer is, Wolter said they do not name the birds as they will be released into the wild.

“I had one vulture that was not releasable. He was my education bird. I named him Percy.”

Wolter said she was “thrilled”. They relocated 163 vultures, including African White-Backed Vultures from Hartbeespoort Dam to Shamwari in January.

The relocation was Africa’s largest vulture relocation to date and marks a conservation milestone.

A Cape Vulture in full flight.
(Photo: Supplied)

The birds were brought to the reserve in a two-year project to establish Vulpro at the Shamwari breeding facility for sick or injured vultures which have been rehabilitated and can still breed, but are non-releasable.

The move involved more than 50 people and took 18 hours, with all birds loaded in just three hours. Logistics company DHL provided transport and security, while WeWild Africa, an NGO specialising in animal rewilding and translocation, loaded the birds and funded the transport crates.

Prof Katja Koeppel from the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Sciences managed the welfare of the birds, supported by Dr Johan Joubert from Shamwari.

The Cape Vulture offspring will be released at Shamwari in keeping with its ethos of restoring the indigenous fauna and flora on the 250km² reserve to what it once was. All these birds will be fitted with tracking devices.

“I think the successful breeding of these birds shows how adaptable they are,” Wolter added.

Shamwari CEO, Joe Cloete, said the Cape Vulture is indigenous in the Eastern Cape and essential for the ecological balance in the veld.

“The vultures keep the veld clean,” he said.

He said very few people are aware of how intensive the work is to save the vulture population.

“We are all very excited. When the vultures arrived in January, I said this was as significant as if we brought in 163 black rhinos. Vultures are very neglected as a species and yet so very important,” he added.

A Cape Vulture and a bigger youngster in their enclosure.
(Photo: Supplied)

By Wednesday afternoon, everyone was watching the second bird hatching.

“He is knocking on the door,” Cloete said, adding that the guests at Shamwari Game Reserve were very taken with the birds.

“Everybody wants to see the vultures.”

He said it was great news that the young vultures released as part of the project had stayed in Shamwari.

“The other day I watched 10 or 12 of them fly. This is excellent news for us.”

In the next project phase, they will bring other species of vultures to Shamwari to breed in captivity and their offspring will then be released where they are indigenous. The birds are released at sites identified by the National Vulture Breeding Steering Committee.

Wolter said the 21 young birds released at Shamwari have stayed in the area, except for one which flew to Ventersdorp.

The hatchlings are a comfort to Wolter after two mass drownings in the province. With high temperatures and drought ravaging the Eastern Cape earlier this year, it became more difficult for the birds to find water. Half-empty cement reservoirs, Wolter explained, made it very difficult for the birds to exit the dams. Twelve birds drowned near Stutterheim and another 19 in the Winterberg area.

Wolter said vultures continuously face threats including shooting, trapping, intentional and unintentional poisoning, being killed for food or belief-based uses, electrocution and collision with wind turbines.

Also read in Daily Maverick: Kruger Park vultures felled by poachers’ highly toxic poison

She said powerlines were the greatest threat, but that collisions with wind turbines were becoming a growing problem.

Also read in Daily Maverick: Energy sector explores strategies to limit bird and bat fatalities at wind farms

A second phase, later this year, will see the relocation of breeding pairs of non-releasable, lappet-faced, white-headed and hooded vultures, and some additional white-backed vultures.

Offspring from the other species will be transported back to Vulpro’s Hartbeespoort facility where they will be sent to release sites that the steering committee has identified as areas where these species need bolstering and support.

Cape Vultures looking after their chicks.
(Photo: Supplied)

Wolter said she didn’t intend to become the “vulture whisperer”, as she is known, but got involved with the protection of vultures as a way of getting into conservation.

Twenty-one years later, she is still in awe about how fragile and misunderstood these birds are.

“And also how forgotten they are and how dependent they have become on humans for their survival.

“I never tire of being involved in new life and hope. It is a privilege to try. This little chick gave hope to all other vultures. It is an example of what can be done,” she said. DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa