Moholoholo: We're losing a significant percentage of our vultures

We spoke with Martial about The Peregrine Fund and the University of St Andrews' findings, along with Moholoholo's recent review of admitted raptors into the centre. Moholoholo's findings were also presented at the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Birds of Prey Conference in 2023.

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Q&A with Martial Rappo

So, Martial tell us about what your recent review found:

"We conducted a review of the causes of admission of raptors to our facility in the last 20 years. This confirmed that the majority of raptors that were admitted to Moholoholo were brought in as a result of anthropogenic impacts. The leading causes of admission were collisions with powerlines, as well as with vehicles, fences, or buildings. Another significant threat, and one that is becoming increasingly widespread over large parts of the continent, is wildlife poisoning."

Do your findings and the study from The Peregrine Fund and the University of St Andrews show similarities?

"The St Andrews study highlights threats to southern African raptors, which are very similar to the admission causes of the same species at Moholoholo in Limpopo, South Africa. This shows that raptor loss is a continent-wide conservation concern."

This is worrying, but how serious is it if South Africa loses its raptors?

"A lot of people do not know this, and it is incredibly interesting, but raptors like vultures and eagles are a big indicator of a healthy ecosystem. As an indicator species, if there is not something right in an environment, raptors moving out of the area is the first sign. Vultures specifically play such an important role in keeping an ecosystem healthy. They do this by scavenging dead meat, which if left would rot and spread diseases. 

"We saw this happen in India where their vulture population collapsed due to them ingesting diclofenac (an antibiotic) in the cattle carcasses, which led to their deaths. As a result, there was a significant rise in diseases such as rabies as stray animals consumed the rotting meat that vultures would typically scavenge, and these stray animals then came into contact with humans. As such, India's healthcare system struggled with the surge in patient admissions. So, I think people greatly underestimate vultures' impact on an ecosystem and local communities."

The study by The Peregrine Fund and St Andrews also mentioned that "persecution through shooting, trapping, poisoning" are additional threats to raptors. Is this something you are also seeing at Moholoholo?

"Unfortunately, yes. Many of the raptors affected by poisoning are already critically endangered, and large poisoning events have long-lasting impacts that can regionally affect populations of species. Of these species, vultures are the most widely affected, whilst other birds of prey including the Bateleur and Tawny Eagle also frequently fall victim to this.

"Although there are many reasons for these “raptor persecution” events, in northeastern South Africa they appear to be linked to the targeting of large carnivores, with the illegal trade in body parts. These raptors may be eating the poisoned meat set out for these predators or have been victims of sentinel poisoning. Sentinel poisoning is the deliberate poisoning of vultures to hide the location of a carcass, as circling vultures indicate to rangers that a poaching incident has occurred. This poses a very serious motivation for poisoning. If the poacher can remove this natural identification tool, the vultures, then they have more time and a better chance of getting away without being caught."

That is amazing to hear! How often does Moholoholo succeed in releasing raptors back out into the wild?

"In Moholoholo’s review, we found that with the many vultures we have treated over the years, we have had an extremely high success rate of release. If people bring us in a poisoned vulture that's still alive, we can get them back into the wild again. I'm very, very happy to say today that after reviewing those admission forms and going through everything, the most common outcome for all the birds was actually to be released back into their natural environment."

Moholoholo does amazing work for the raptors and wildlife brought into the centre! A final point from the Peregrine Fund and St Andrews study was the need for increasing public involvement in raptor conservation efforts. Does Moholoholo also assist with this?

"Yes, there is a huge need for increased education among the public about raptors and their threats. Next to rehabilitating animals, Moholoholo’s other main goal is to educate the public. We offer guided tours to the public through the sanctuary side of the centre. We’ve had up to 20,000 local school kids visiting the centre to learn about the animals. Due to socio-economic factors, a lot of these children don’t have the chance to visit local game reserves to observe and learn about wildlife. People will only conserve and protect what they like and feel compassion for, which they cannot do without understanding it first. Therefore, it is extremely important to educate the people living closest to these habitats."