Home->PRESS RELEASE 12th January 2007

Vultures rescued from the illegal trade in wild birds

- Taken from the wild in Africa, rescued in Rome and now in a new home in Hampshire -

African White-backed Vultures

A group of twenty African vultures has arrived at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, the bird of prey rescue and research centre near Andover, Hampshire, after being rescued as part of a massive illegal consignment of 260 vultures intercepted in Italy, one of the largest ever groups of wild birds to be confiscated and needing to be re-homed. Three species of vulture are involved in this latest example of the terrible trade in wild birds – the African White-backed vulture (Gyps africanus) the Hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) and the White-headed vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis).

The dramatic details of the vultures’ rescue and re-homing in Hampshire are the subject of a report on BBC TV’s ‘Inside Out’ programme – the first in the new series – to be shown in the BBC TV South region at 7.30pm on Friday 12 January 2007 (and can be viewed on BBC TV South’s satellite channel number 901, with information also on the Inside Out website: www.bbc.co.uk/insideout).

 

White-headed and African White-backed Vultures

The UK is the first foreign country to be selected to take the birds out of Italy by CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and EAZA (the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria). The vultures, thought to be from East Africa, were imported illegally into Europe and were confiscated by the Italian authorities – details are sketchy at this stage because the birds are the focus of a court case still underway in Italy. The vultures are being re-homed by EAZA in animal centres within Europe with specialist raptor expertise and the Trust was one of the collections selected as being suitable to become custodians of the birds.

Hooded Vultures

Rome Zoo took on the responsibility of caring for the vultures until new homes could be found and their curator Yitzhak Yadid worked closely with the Trust in setting up all the arrangements. Chief Executive of the Hawk Conservancy Trust, Ashley Smith and Curator Andy Hinton collected the vultures from a secret location outside Rome, just before Christmas. Ashley Smith spoke of his shock when he first saw the birds: “It was incredible to see so many vultures together in one place. With their powerful beaks and flesh-tearing talons they are such impressive birds, but it was shocking and sad to see them – in aviaries in Italy when they should still be in their native African savannahs. You cannot take this many birds from the wild and not have a devastating impact on the local wild population. Vulture populations have a very slow recovery rate – on average only one out of every three breeding pairs will raise just one chick successfully each year.”

Hooded Vulture

One of the world’s leading experts on vultures is Dr Mark Anderson, Senior Special Nature Conservation Scientist for the Northern Cape, South Africa. He commented on the impact of this latest example of ‘harvesting’ of vultures from the wild: “Vultures are one of the most threatened guilds of birds in Africa, with numbers in some regions plummeting during the past few decades. In West Africa, for example, researchers Guy Rondeau and Jean-Marc Thiollay have determined that the vulture populations of all species (except to some extent the Hooded vulture) have significantly declined in numbers during recent years. In East Africa, the apparent stronghold for many species, vulture numbers are also apparently declining. In this region, poisoned bait intended for lions and hyaenas inadvertently kills vultures. Vultures are threatened by a variety of anthropogenic factors, including habitat transformation, declining food availability, poisons, and powerline electrocutions. The harvesting of vultures, whether for trade or traditional medicine, is also impacting on the populations of some vulture species.”

Following veterinary checks in Rome and by the Trust’s vet, John Chitty of the Strathmore Veterinary Practice in Andover, the vultures are now settling into their new home – large aviaries within a wooded area of the Trust’s 22-acre site – with eagles, owls, hawks and falcons amongst their neighbours.

African White-backed Vulture

BBC TV presenter and zoologist Chris Packham provides the voice over for the Inside Out report. He commented on the rescue and re-homing operation: “The illegal trade in birds of prey and their allies is a menace to their conservation on many levels. It undermines the considerable work performed in the field and in collections such as the Hawk Conservancy Trust, so it is simply fantastic that we have the expertise and resources to come to the aid of these birds. Vultures have not enjoyed the best PR in the bird world but now quite a few species are seriously imperiled so this project scores positively on all sorts of levels - cutting edge conservation, proactive education and essential welfare. Not many people have the skills, the energy or the determination to put a smile on a vulture’s face - all credit is due to those who do!”

The Hawk Conservancy Trust participates in management programmes for a number of vulture species that are of conservation concern. Only the week before the vultures were collected from Rome, Trust staff and volunteers had returned from taking part in a conservation ringing programme on the De Beers estate in Kimberley, South Africa for the African White-backed vulture. As well as ringing and monitoring the vultures in the area, the Trust financed and provided the manpower to build a bird viewing hide at one of the vulture ‘restaurant’ sites. This is to be used for research programmes, allowing conservationists to study the birds without disturbance.

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