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Vulture
Restaurant
The
global crisis for large scavenging birds of prey cannot
be overemphasized. Not only are known threats to these
species being amplified across countries and continents,
but new threats are constantly emerging as well. Unfortunately,
the overarching root cause is actions by people, some
deliberate, some inadvertent, and the only solution
can lie in deliberate conservation strategy, dissemination
of information regarding the required strategies and
cooperative action from land managers. |
Marking
birds is undertaken in order to monitor individuals
and populations. This helps to extrapolate the risks
that threaten or potentially threaten a species. Since
the first marking of individual Namibian vultures in
the 1960s, marking and monitoring of birds in general
and vultures in particular, have evolved, especially
through technological advances. Today a number of nongovernment
organizations as well as officials from the Ministry
of Environment and Tourism contribute to the pool of
information on vultures in Namibia, vultures in specific
regions, global trends of vulture populations, threats
to healthy habitats and sufficient uncontaminated food
resources for these useful birds. |
NARREC
has been particularly involved in facilitating advocacy
and cooperation to stop the use of poison for lethal
predator control on farmlands in Namibia. This advocacy
work has resulted in policy changes on the importation,
legal prescription and dispensing of poison for predator
control. In addition, many informative resources on
poisons, pesticides, livestock predators and birds of
prey have been distributed free of charge. The various
publications are listed in 'Publications' in
this web site. |
Another
of NARREC's contributions towards biodiversity safety
is the maintenance of a vulture restaurant or feeding
station. At NARREC all building work is done with a
low construction impact objective. Stamped earth with
a cement strengthener, NARREC's preferred and most applied
building method, could not be used for the vulture monitoring
hide as the site's available resources dictated something
different. Daniel Komen designed a sandbag construction
for the hide, using natural schist rock from the surrounds
for the floor. The site itself was chosen because of
the existence of a 60-year-old, leaky metal reservoir
which provided the outer skin of the building. The sandbag
construction method allowed for easy and inexpensive
use of the available sand resource. At the same time,
by excavating for sand, a nearby, natural summer waterhole
was enlarged. The sandbags have created a functional
and pleasantly insulated indoor space. |
Click HERE
for the re-sighting CrowdMap if the above square remains
blank. |
Wild,
free-flying vultures have been fed at NARREC for some
years but since building the monitoring hide the feeding
frequency has taken on a greater intensity. Because
it is not always possible to have people at the hide
for every feed and duration of each feed, a Bushnell
Census Camera is used to capture the feeding activity
when a carcass is placed at the restaurant. The photographic
records have provided some useful sighting of birds
and their behaviour, and have also given necessary feedback
on birds with wing tags and leg rings. |
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Scenes at
the NARREC Vulture Restaurant
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