{"id":73,"date":"2010-12-19T12:48:20","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T19:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wildnaturephotos.com\/Blog\/?p=73"},"modified":"2010-12-19T19:26:31","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T02:26:31","slug":"poisoning-drives-the-vulture-decline-in-masai-mara-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wildnaturephotos.com\/Blog\/2010\/12\/poisoning-drives-the-vulture-decline-in-masai-mara-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"Poisoning drives the vulture decline in Masai Mara, Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

This report \u00a0should be of interest to all those interested in wildlife conservation;
\nit is is taken from\u00a0http:\/\/www.promedmail.org<\/a>.\u00a0ProMED-mail is a program
\nof the International Society for Infectious Diseases\u00a0http:\/\/www.isid.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Date: 17 Dec 2010
\nSource: BBC Earth News [edited – follow the link below for full-text and photos]
\nhttp:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/earth\/hi\/earth_news\/newsid_9290000\/9290103.stm<\/a><\/p>\n

CARBOFURAN POISONING, VULTURES – KENYA<\/p>\n

Vulture populations in one of Africa’s most important wildlife
\nreserves have declined by 60 percent, say scientists. The researchers
\nsuggest that the decline of vultures in Kenya’s Masai Mara is being
\ndriven by poisoning. The US-based Peregrine Fund says farmers
\noccasionally lace the bodies of dead cattle or goats with a toxic
\npesticide called furadan. [Furadan is a carbamate pesticide.]
\nThis appears to be aimed at carnivores that kill the livestock, but
\none carcass can poison up to 150 vultures.<\/p>\n

Munir Virani, who is director of the Peregrine Fund’s Africa programs,
\nhas called for use of Furadan to be banned in the region “to preserve
\nthese keystone members of the scavenging community. People may think
\nof vultures as ugly and disgusting, but the birds are essential for
\nthe ecosystem,” he says.<\/p>\n

Their taste for carrion actually makes them the landscape’s clean-up
\nteam — ensuring the region is not littered with bodies, helping
\ncontain the spread of disease and recycling nutrients.<\/p>\n

The results of this latest survey of vultures are published in the
\njournal Biological Conservation. The terrible consequences of a
\nvulture population crash have already been demonstrated during a case
\nthat became known as the Asian vulture crisis. Populations of Gyps
\nvultures in particular, in South Asia, crashed by more than 95 percent
\nover just a few years in the 1990s, primarily because farmers treated
\ntheir cattle with the pain-killing drug diclofenac [acid].<\/p>\n

The pain-killer, it turned out, was lethal to the vultures, which fed
\non the dead cattle. As well as driving 3 species of vulture to the
\nbrink of extinction, the crisis provided a huge amount of food for
\nwild dogs, which moved in to take the place of the birds. This had the
\ndevastating side-effect of increasing the spread of rabies. And Dr
\nVirani is concerned that a similar situation could happen in Kenya.<\/p>\n

The solution in Africa though, could be much more straightforward than
\nin South Asia. By boosting the public image of vultures in the
\ncountry, the Peregrine Fund hopes to stop people from carrying out
\nthese “revenge poisoning attacks.”<\/p>\n

Between 2003 and 2005, Dr Virani and his colleagues drove across the
\nexpansive Kenyan landscapes, counting vultures. He and his colleagues
\nthen compared the results of these surveys with the results of surveys
\ncarried out in the 1980s. The comparison revealed a 60 percent decline
\nin vultures.<\/p>\n

Corinne Kendal’s work has taken this survey a step further. Ms Kendal
\nis a researcher from Princeton University in the USA, who has also
\nbeen working with the Peregrine Fund — tracking and monitoring the
\nbirds to investigate the extent of the poisoning.<\/p>\n

“We attached the GPS trackers like little backpacks,” she tells BBC
\nNews. “There’s a piece that sits on their chest and 2 loops around
\neach wing. But we had 4 out of 16 vultures killed in the 1st year and
\n3 of those were confirmed cases of poisoning. From a sample of 16,
\nit’s difficult to know how representative that is, but it’s extremely
\nworrying.”<\/p>\n

The transmitters also revealed that most of the poisoning happened
\noutside of the reserve, which is a protected area.<\/p>\n

“If they stayed in the Mara Serengeti they would hardly ever get
\npoisoned,” says Ms Kendall. “But, based on the transmitters, it
\nappears that the vultures that use the Masai Mara have very large home
\nranges — from 30 000 to 80 000 square kilometres [11 583 to 30 888
\nsquare miles], depending on the species.” And the birds can travel
\nover 250km [155 miles] in a single day. This means that poisoning in
\nand around the Masai Mara could have an effect on the vulture
\npopulations, not just in other parts of Kenya, but in other countries
\nin Africa.<\/p>\n

Ms Kendall explains to BBC News that in the Mara ecosystem, the birds
\nconsume 70 percent of all available meat. “If we lose vultures,
\nthere’s no other animal that will be able to consume the volume,” she
\nsays.<\/p>\n

The reserve is a vast dining table for the birds, especially during
\nthe annual wildebeest migration, when 1.5 million of the animals march
\nacross the plains in search of grass.<\/p>\n

“So without vultures, during the wildebeest migration you would have
\ncarcasses lying everywhere and you would see lots of disease spread,”
\nsaid Ms Kendall.<\/p>\n

Under threat
\n————
\nIn the last 3 months alone, Dr Virani says he has discovered 6 cases
\nwhere vultures have been poisoned.<\/p>\n

The Peregrine Fund has now recommend that 3 vulture species — the
\nAfrican white-backed, Ruppell’s, and hooded vultures — be relisted as
\nVulnerable on the IUCN Red List, an internationally recognized
\ncompilation of threatened species.<\/p>\n

“If we lost the vultures,” says Dr Murani, “tourists would have to
\ntravel around the reserve with face masks on, because the stench from
\nrotting wildebeest carcasses would be unbearable.”<\/p>\n

[Byline: Victoria Gill]<\/p>\n

—
\nCommunicated by:
\nHealthMap Alerts via ProMED-mail<\/p>\n

[Furadan or Curater is the market name for carbofuran, a very toxic
\ncarbamate pesticide. Carbofuran is a systemic plant insecticide
\nmeaning the plant can take it up through the roots and the plant pests
\nare killed when they consume the plant. Carbofuran is also toxic to
\ninsects via contact with them.<\/p>\n

Carbamates are a class of chemicals that work by reversibly inhibiting
\nacetylcholine esterase, a nerve transmitter. In contrast,
\norganophosphates irreversibly inhibit acetylcholine esterase.<\/p>\n

Carbofuran has been banned from use in Europe and Canada. The US EPA
\n(Environmental Protection Agency) announced its intention in 2009 to
\nstop use of the chemical on all crops produced for human consumption.
\nIn essence, it has had the same effect as banning the chemical in the
\nUSA.<\/p>\n

Prior to the ban of the granular form of the chemical, one granule was
\nenough to kill a bird of substantial size. There is a liquid
\nformulation that is less harmful to birds. However 1 teaspoon of the
\nliquid is enough to kill a 70 kg [155 pound] human.<\/p>\n

These formulations, however illegal, remain a major culprit for
\nwildlife deaths in Canada, the USA and Britain. Domestic animals in
\nthese same countries are also targeted with this poison. Especially
\nthe granular formulation and to a lesser extent the liquid formulation
\nhas been used in Kenya to kill lions.<\/p>\n

Photos of the African White-backed vulture (_Gyps africanus_) may be found at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.naturfoto-cz.de\/african-white-backed-vulture:gyps-africanus-photo-3171.html
\n<\/a>and
\nhttp:\/\/www.thefalconrycentre.co.uk\/artfocus.php?id=105<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos of Ruppell’s vulture (_Gyps ruepellii_ [that is NOT a typo])
\nmay be found at:
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/yasmineandmenasdad\/286606684\/<\/a>
\nand
\nhttp:\/\/www.treknature.com\/gallery\/Africa\/Tanzania\/photo231168.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos of hooded vultures (_Necrosyrtes monachus_) may be found at:
\nhttp:\/\/vultures.homestead.com\/Hooded.html<\/a>
\nand
\nhttp:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/annkelliott\/4170622788\/<\/a><\/p>\n

References:
\n———–
\nCBS News 60 Minutes tv show:
\nPoison Takes Toll On Africa’s Lions
\nKenyan Cattle Herders Are Using The American Pesticide Furadan To Kill The Predators
\nhttp:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2009\/03\/26\/60minutes\/main4894945.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

BBC News:
\nInsecticide ‘killing Kenya lions’
\nEnvironmentalists in Kenya are worried that an insecticide is being
\nused by farmers to kill lions and other predators.
\nhttp:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/africa\/7460008.stm<\/a><\/p>\n

Wobeser et al. 2004. Secondary poisoning of eagles following
\nintentional poisoning of coyotes with anticholinesterase pesticides in
\nWestern Canada. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 40(2):163-172<\/p>\n

US EPA\/OPPTS; Reregistration Eligibility Decisions (REDs) Database on
\nCarbofuran (1563-66-2). EPA-738-R-06-031. August 2006<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARBOFURAN POISONING, VULTURES – KENYA<\/p>\n

Vulture populations in one of Africa’s most important wildlife
\nreserves have declined by 60 percent, say scientists. The researchers
\nsuggest that the decline of vultures in Kenya’s Masai Mara is being
\ndriven by poisoning. The US-based Peregrine Fund says farmers
\noccasionally lace the bodies of dead cattle or goats with a toxic
\npesticide called furadan. [Furadan is a carbamate pesticide.]
\nThis appears to be aimed at carnivores that kill the livestock, but
\none carcass can poison up to 150 vultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18,17],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology","tag-africa","tag-conservation"],"yoast_head":"\nPoisoning drives the vulture decline in Masai Mara, Kenya - WildNaturePhotos Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wildnaturephotos.com\/Blog\/2010\/12\/poisoning-drives-the-vulture-decline-in-masai-mara-kenya\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poisoning drives the vulture decline in Masai Mara, Kenya - WildNaturePhotos Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CARBOFURAN POISONING, VULTURES - KENYA Vulture populations in one of Africa's most important wildlife reserves have declined by 60 percent, say scientists. 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