More than 25 years ago the Namibia Animal Rehabilitation
Research and Education Centre (NARREC) opened
its doors for intakes of injured, orphaned and
misplaced wildlife. Animal rescue, care and
rehabilitation, together with public education,
have been NARREC's mandate over these past years.
Although the intake focus has narrowed, NARREC
makes every attempt to assist and advise a rescuer
in order to secure every animal's immediate
comfort and also to direct the person to the
correct facility.
While
the safeguarding of the health and welfare of
all animals takes priority at NARREC, it has
been found that focusing on a specific group
of animals allows for the implementation of
best practices. NARREC's focus is on birds of
prey, a group that is often at the end of a
food chain and that is subject to a number of
factors that not only threaten the future survival
of their populations but also endanger biodiversity
in general. One of the most serious of such
threats to biodiversity is the use, misuse and
abuse of chemicals. Scavenging birds of prey
are especially vulnerable, and in some cases
they are severely threatened, even endangered,
by pesticides, poisons and some livestock pharmaceutical
treatments.
NARREC's
specific actions, always based on promoting
cooperation and advocacy, include addressing
the issue, creating public awareness and engaging
stakeholders in government and non-government
organizations. Besides print, radio and television
media, a number of booklets and posters have
been produced and distributed. These are “Large
Birds of Prey - Namibia”, “Owls
of Namibia” , “Predators on Livestock
Farms in Namibia”, “Bird Ringing
- a guide to getting started” and three
booklets on “Safe and Responsible Use
of Poison and Pesticides”. A separate
issue addresses the illegal trade in parrots.
NARREC's poster on “Parrots and Lovebirds
of Namibia” is beautifully illustrated
for Namibia by the well-known bird artist, Graeme
Arnot.
Working
with current recommendations from conservation
groups, NARREC has promoted and initiated a
number of specific actions for vultures. The
focus of these actions are safe feeding sites,
monitoring and reporting re-sightings of individually
marked birds, publicizing information on primary
and secondary poisoning, and providing guidelines
for the safe retrieval of samples for laboratory
analysis at a poison event. A pamphlet, “Vulture
Restaurants”, provides basic information
on safe practices and importantly lists pharmaceutical
products that, if consumed by vultures in a
carcass, can be lethal. Posters, booklet and
pamphlet information have been reproduced in
local publications for livestock and hunting
farms.
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A
vulture re-sightings crowd-map was developed
to encourage and facilitate reports of re-sightings
of marked birds. A promotional pamphlet on vultures
and vulture monitoring, together with car bumper
and license disc stickers, aims to increase
the potential of re-sightings by the many tourists
who visit Namibia and the region. Close to 900
re-sightings are recorded on the map.
In
2016, NARREC will continue to assist individual
animals and to disseminate information. Cooperation,
advocacy and strengthening of the network between
government ministries and non-government personnel
will highlight the issue of chemical use that
negatively affects biodiversity. This year the
aim is to begin with a focus on the newly formed
veterinary para-professional group for dissemination
of important information concerning pesticides,
poisons and pharmaceuticals that are threatening
many scavenging birds of prey species.
NARREC
does not work in isolation and the generous
support of government and non-government persons
and organizations that continue to be involved
in the ongoing efforts to secure the future
safety of our biodiversity is gratefully acknowledged.
Visitors
to the NARREC centre are welcome.
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