Several vulture populations in Africa have declined by up to 95% over the last few decades. The critical nature of this rapid decrease was highlighted when parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) adopted the Multi-species Action Plan to Conserve African-Eurasian Vultures (Vulture MsAP). Unlike the Asian Vulture Crisis, where the veterinary drug diclofenac was responsible for the collapse, there appear to be multiple drivers of the African Vulture Crisis, with the importance of each varying between species and region.

Vultures provide important ecosystem services, and their rapid declines will have a dramatic effect on people and wildlife in Africa. The FitzPatrick Institute is committed to help conserve vultures by engaging in collaborative research projects throughout the continent.

Working with the conservation NGO Raptors Botswana, we have been involved in long term research on Botswana’s significant populations of vultures. All five species in the country are globally threatened. Central to this research is an attempt to quantify changes in vulture populations in Botswana over the last 30 years by repeating road transects undertaken in the early 1990s, as well as repeating aerial surveys of key colonies. This work has also involved GPS tracking of Lappet-faced Vultures Torgos tracheliotos.

We are also a key partner in the conservation of the Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus in southern Africa. We have a long-standing collaboration with the team from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, where several students have worked on this important conservation project.

Building on our successful predictive space use model for the Bearded Vulture, we have now also completed a space use model for the Cape Vulture Gyps coprotheres across its entire global range. This was a large collaborative project using data from almost every organisation that has put GPS tags on this species. These predictive maps are now being used by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to help guide wind farm placements to protect this important and threatened species. Additionally, we have been involved in analysing tracking data from an isolated population of Cape Vultures at the Potberg colony, Western Cape to help better understand their food requirements and habitat use.

Activities in 2024

  • Our published space use model for Cape Vultures continued to be incorporated into the DFFE protocol to guide wind farm placement for vultures. This protocol was made available for consultation in 2024 and will hopefully be gazetted by government in the near future.
  • In collaboration with researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Andrea Santangeli used data from 20 GPS tracked Lappet-faced Vultures from Botswana, to better understand and map the exposure of these birds to intentional and unintentional poisoning risk across Southern Africa. This work is a collaboration between Raptors Botswana, Arjun Amar and Robert Thomson.
  • CB MSc student Tevin Adams explored the movement and diet of GPS tracked Cape Vultures from the Potberg Colony, and ground truthed over 40 potential feeding sites based on the GPS 'signatures’. Tevin was supervised by Arjun Amar, Robert Thomson and Gareth Tate (EWT). Tevin also conducted a series of questionnaire interviews with farmers in the region to better understand their perspectives on vulture conservation in the areas around the Potberg colony.

Highlights

  • A simplified version of our predictive space use model for Cape Vultures, developed by Dr Francisco Cervantes, was incorporated by the DFFE into their Cape Vulture Protocol for use in EIAs for onshore wind farms in South Africa. In 2024 this protocol was issued for public consultation prior to being gazetted by government.
  • Tevin Adams graduated in September 2024. He is currently writing up his thesis for publication.
  • Arjun Amar, Glyn Maude, previous PhD student Beckie Garbett and colleagues published a paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
  • Andrea Santangeli, Arjun Amar, Robert Thomson and colleagues, led by Teja Curk, published a paper in Animal Conservation exploring the overlap between space use, food abundance and poisoning risk for Lappet-faced Vultures tagged in Botswana.
  • Andrea Santangeli presented the results of a pan-European vulture survival project named SURVIVALIST at the European Conservation Biology Congress held in Bologna in 2024. The results he presented highlight high survival rates across three of the four European vulture species, which align with the good status of their populations across the continent.
  • Andrea Santangeli, and colleagues from Africa and beyond, published a global study on the contribution of vultures towards ecosystem services and sustainability based on expert elicited scores worldwide. The paper is published in the journal iScience.

Impact of the project
Our research aims to understand important ecological issues affecting vultures, quantify population trends of multiple species, and identify key drivers of their population declines. Using our research on vulture restaurants, poison use, blood lead levels and hunting, and more recently our research on reintroductions, we hope to deliver solutions to help reverse the declines in these species in Africa. The outcomes of these projects will help us understand why, what, where and how vulture threats occur, with implications for targeting cost-effective conservation actions.

Key co-supporters
NRF Innovation Scholarship; ABAX Foundation; BTE Renewables; JW Jagger Grant; Denver Zoo; Raptors Botswana; Rufford Grant; Wilderness Wildlife Trust; Colombus Zoo; Leslie Brown Memorial Grant; Peregrine Fund; IDEA Wild; Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife; Endangered Wildlife Trust; N3TC through Wildlands; Vultures Namibia; VulPro; HawkWatch International; University of Marburg; Academy of Finland; WildBird Trust.

Research team 2024
Team leaders and collaborators:
A/Prof. Arjun Amar (FIAO, UCT)
A/Prof. Robert Thomson (FIAO, UCT)
Dr Andrea Santangeli (IMEDEA, FIAO, UCT)
Dr Francisco Cervantes (FIAO, UCT)
Dr Megan Murgatroyd (HawkWatch International)
Dr Sonja Krüger (EKZN Wildlife)
Dr Glyn Maude (Raptors Botswana)
Dr Richard Reading (Raptors Botswana)
Dr Moses Selebatso (Raptors Botswana)
Dr Gareth Tate (Endangered Wildlife Trust)
Dr Beckie Garbett (BirdLife International)

Student:
Tevin Adams (CB MSc, UCT).