Poisoning by farmers wipes out 60 percent of vultures in Kenya wildlife reserve
By Victoria Gill, Science and nature reporter, BBC News
17 December 2010 Vulture populations in one of Africa’s most important wildlife reserves have declined by 60%, say scientists. The researchers suggest that the decline of vultures in Kenya’s Masai Mara is being driven by poisoning. The US-based Peregrine Fund says farmers occasionally lace the bodies of dead cattle or goats with a toxic pesticide called furadan. This appears to be aimed at carnivores that kill the livestock, but one carcass can poison up to 150 vultures. Munir Virani, who is director of the Peregrine Fund’s Africa programmes, has called for use of furadan to be banned in the region “to preserve these keystone members of the scavenging community”. “People may think of vultures as ugly and disgusting, but the birds are essential for the ecosystem,” he says. Their taste for carrion actually makes them the landscape’s clean-up team – ensuring the region is not littered with bodies, helping contain the spread of disease and recycling nutrients. The results of this latest survey of vultures are published in the journal Biological Conservation. …
