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SANParks says alien plant species have been sucking up chunks of water.
A joint SANParks and Endangered Wildlife Trust(EWT) team has now released back into the wild 84 vultures after rescuing them in early May following a mass poisoning incident in the Kruger National Park’s Mahlangeni Section.
The park’s Section Ranger, Andrew Desmat, says the incident was detected by the EWT’s surveillance system.
Desmat says they believe poachers deliberately laced an elephant carcass with toxic agrochemicals to target vultures for the illegal wildlife trade.
“As rangers, we believe that the reason for killing these vultures is because they serve as an early warning indicator to rangers for trouble. We didn’t find any vultures that had been harvested or taken, so we don’t believe the goal was to use their parts,” adds Desmet.
#sapsLIM Police in Limpopo have launched a manhunt for suspects responsible for the illegal hunting of an elephant and subsequent poisoning that resulted in the death of numerous protected vultures in the Kruger National Park. Anyone with information to contact W/O Nkuna at 082… pic.twitter.com/3or6bFiVqg
— SA Police Service 🇿🇦 (@SAPoliceService) May 10, 2025
Unfortunately, the vultures ingested organophosphate, resulting in over 120 deaths.
“Because of the uptake in poisoning across the greater Kruger, we are now monitoring the vultures’ movement closely. We have some vultures that we have captured and we have placed tracking units in the vultures so we can establish their whereabouts. Should we detect any suspicious behavior with a majority of the vultures and see that they are headed towards a certain direction, we immediately investigate because we know they are drawn by something.”
