Mass vulture poisoning in Kruger triggers historic wildlife-rescue operation

Mail & Guardian

09-05-2025

A total of 116 vultures were found dead. (Photo: SANParks)
At least 123
A joint team of
The incident marked one of the largest mass poisoning events ever witnessed in the Kruger. A total of 116 vultures were found dead at the scene in the Mahlangeni section, the EWT and SANParks said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The EWT's pioneering wildlife poisoning surveillance and detection system triggered an alert at 6:05am on Tuesday.
The SANParks and EWT team arrived on site by 8:20am where they made their grim find. The elephant carcass was laced with highly toxic agrochemical pesticides by poachers to harvest body parts for the
The initial responders — six SANParks rangers and two EWT officials — found two vultures alive roughly 500m from the carcass. They were immediately treated with atropine, activated charcoal and fluid.
Reinforcements were swiftly deployed, the organisations said. Support teams from the
This was the first time SANParks helicopters were used in a wildlife poisoning rescue of this scale.
What followed was a coordinated, high-intensity rescue of 84 vultures, including white-backed, Cape and hooded vultures. Forty-five of the birds were transported by the EWT's
Eighty-four vultures were found alive. (Photo: SANParks)
Thirty-nine vultures were airlifted by helicopter to the SANParks K9 facility in Phalaborwa for immediate monitoring. A final group was transported later that night to Moholoholo for continued intensive care.
Teams, including vets from WildScapes and Briner Veterinary Services, as well as the Moholoholo team, worked through the night to stabilise each bird and keep them alive.
A remarkable 96% survival rate was achieved, with only five of the vultures found alive dying. As of Thursday, 83 vultures are still alive and recovering.
'It's probably one of the best survival rates ever,' said John Davies, the EWT's Birds of Prey programme project coordinator: raptor conservation and research. 'Obviously we're not at the point to 100% say we're out of the woods yet; you kind of want to wait maybe a few days before we can be really confident about that.
'We've separated the birds into batches … this afternoon we're going to start moving them into flight enclosures — the ones that are almost showing no signs of poisoning anymore.'
This would provide a better opportunity to assess how they are doing and to ensure they are eating well before release. 'So far, all the birds that arrived alive at the [Moholoholo] rehab centre are still surviving, which is fantastic.'
Martial Rappo, the manager of the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, said the surviving vultures were being monitored around the clock, 'giving them fluids and keeping them hydrated, monitoring their temperature and constantly attending to them'.
The scale of the poisoning is 'staggering', SANParks and the EWT said, noting that 123 vultures were found dead at the scene — 102 white-backed vultures, 20 Cape vultures and one Lappet-faced vulture — which are all listed as endangered or critically endangered species.
'This marks one of the largest vulture poisoning events in Southern Africa and the most extensive coordinated response effort and rescues to date,' they said, noting that more than 20 people from the conservation, veterinary and enforcement sectors played a role in the rescue and response.
Increased use of poisons
This incident is part of a broader crisis in Southern Africa: the escalating use of poison in wildlife poaching.
'Poachers increasingly use agricultural toxins to target high-value species — not just vultures, but also lions, whose body parts are in growing demand for traditional medicine or muti,' the EWT and SANParks said.
The poisoning is a setback to the vulture population in the Greater Kruger landscape, which is trying to recover from similar incidents in the past. SANParks is collaborating with various agencies and institutions to address the current increase particularly in poisoning incidents.
'The latest operation highlights the importance of partnerships in addressing this problem. The recovery and treatment of the live vultures would not have been possible if such partnerships were not in place.'
Davies said GPS tracking technology is crucial in saving vultures in poisoning incidents in remote protected areas.
'We use GPS tracking in a very significant way throughout Africa on vultures. The previous evening, we got an alert from two of our [tracked] birds, saying 'suspected mortality'. When that happens, obviously that requires an accelerated response and that's why the next morning people managed to fly and confirm.'
Vultures fly vast distances, he said. A white-backed vulture will quite easily cover 120km to 150km every day on foraging.
'They encounter feeding sites and carcasses all the time and if any of these birds die at the site, and the poisons are very fast-acting so they do kill them pretty rapidly, it means yes, unfortunately a bunch of birds have been affected, but it allows you the opportunity to find these poaching events as they occur, rather than a month later.'
He said multiple veterinarians had given significant input on treatment protocols. 'Now, we've refined and simplified them so the survival rate is typically around 95% to 98% if we can find birds that are alive. Using GPS tracking technology means we can find these in pretty remote protected areas throughout the continent.'
Such vulture poisonings are not restricted to the Kruger or South Africa, he added. 'They have been happening for years and years. It does seem to be accelerating over time or it may be an end result of just more birds being tracked and finding more of these locations.'
Davies said that throughout Africa the number of vultures that are being poisoned is astronomical. 'The estimates for all human-induced mortalities for vultures, 90% of that is down to wildlife poisoning and every other threat collectively only contributes about 10% of these mortalities.'
SANParks and the EWT commended every individual who responded to this tragedy. 'Their courage, skill, and relentless commitment transformed a potential extinction-level event into one of the most successful vulture rescues ever recorded.'
The operation saw helicopters making multiple trips between the incident site and Phalaborwa throughout the day to assist with the movement of the vultures.
'We are so fortunate in that there are so many people that are just willing to jump in and be a part of it,' Davies said. 'Obviously, the great thing from SANParks — I'm sure everyone understands they are under a lot of pressure with poaching — but their response is really commendable.
'We kind of felt there might be an issue at this location the previous evening and spoke to the section rangers and at first light the next morning, they were already flying with a fixed wing to confirm what was happening. Even from the air, we already had the first confirmation that we need to get there and from the point where we got the first message, I think we had the first person rehabbing birds in an hour and 32 minutes.'
This accelerated response in quite remote areas of the Kruger was fantastic, Davies said. 'From SANParks side, being able to contribute a helicopter for the entire day, which is not a cheap undertaking, and a lot of birds being shuttled from the air.
'We also had a really great pilot from the Lowveld in a separate helicopter — Jana Meyer from Hope for Wildlife — she was using the other helicopter, just moving birds and finding additional birds. It really was an incredible effort with a lot of veterinarians involved.'
He said that 'loads of volunteers' chipped in too. 'Even when the birds arrived here [at Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre], they helped treat and hold the birds. It's very time consuming and the more people the better.'
Rappo added: 'On the one hand, it's obviously very sad for us to see how many birds have passed and it's quite a tragedy. On the other hand, for us as a rehabilitation centre, we would never have been able to get all of these birds through to where we are at this stage without the help of all the organisations.
'It's very discouraging to see what's happening and at same time, it's encouraging if a lot of people work together, a lot of organisations and SANParks, how much one can achieve to at least stop it or at least fight against it. We hope that we will continue; that these vultures stay alive and will soon be able to return back into the wild and hopefully stay safe there.'