Saving Africa's Vultures
VulPro began as a vulture rehabilitation facility and has since grown into a world-class, globally recognised conservation organisation. It is a holistic, grassroots, multi-faceted entity focused on halting the decline of African vulture populations using a multidisciplinary and adaptive management approach. This includes rescue, rehabilitation, and release, ongoing education, community engagement, extensive research, and captive breeding for wild population supplementation. Our mission statement is “Protecting African vultures through collaboration and innovation”.
Poison Cases
According to the African Wildlife Poison Database (numbers from 1961 – Nov 2019):
The Critical Role of Vultures
Vultures play a vital role in ecosystem stability and biodiversity maintenance, fulfilling a niche unmatched by any other scavenger. Their feeding behaviour accelerates decomposition and nutrient cycling, directly benefiting ecosystem health. By removing decaying carcasses, vultures prevent the spread of disease from both natural and anthropogenic (effects or processes caused by human activities, especially related to environmental changes) landscapes, averting potential health crises.
The Decline of Vulture Populations
Due to shrinking natural habitats, indiscriminate poisoning, escalating human-induced threats, direct persecution, and poaching, vulture populations have declined by over 90% in the past three decades. The potential impact of further declines is starkly illustrated by the Asian Vulture Crisis, which had devastating effects on both animal and human populations. Losing our vultures would result in similar catastrophic economic and environmental consequences in Africa.
Powerline Figures
reports by VulPro
VulPro’s Holistic Approach to Conservation
At VulPro, we work towards saving Africa’s vultures through interlinked conservation objectives:
Rescue and Rehabilitation
VulPro collects injured vultures from across South Africa, providing groundbreaking veterinary treatment and rehabilitation to give each vulture a second chance. Our on-site hospital specialises in immediate care, collaborating with expert veterinarians for optimal outcomes, including surgeries to pin broken wings and restore flight capability. Each rehabilitated vulture is monitored post-release with coloured leg bands and/or tracking devices, contributing to ongoing research.
Captive Breeding for Population Supplementation
With vulture numbers declining faster than natural populations can recover, our captive breeding programme is essential. Non-releasable vultures become part of this programme, where they pair, lay eggs, and raise chicks. These offspring are released into the wild, reinforcing dwindling populations. VulPro leads in ex-situ conservation breeding of African vulture species, consulting, and training globally to advance breeding strategies and protocols.
Research for Optimising Vulture Conservation
We conduct rigorous research to enhance our understanding of vulture ecology. This includes population monitoring, tracking movements with GPS transmitters, and maintaining a re-sighting database through camera traps, photographs, and public sightings. Our collaborations with research institutions facilitate knowledge transfer and innovation. Insights gathered from these activities feed into continuous threat mitigation and conservation strategy refinement.
Community, Landowner, and Farmer Engagement
Engaging with local communities, landowners, and farmers is critical to our mission. We conduct extensive outreach and education campaigns to raise awareness about the importance of vultures and promote conservation-friendly practices. Our efforts include farmer and landowner days, meetings, presentations, demonstrations, printed materials, social media engagement, and regular communication via WhatsApp videos. Building mutual understanding and collaboration with these stakeholders is vital for the success of our conservation efforts.
Our mission at VulPro is to protect African vultures through collaboration and innovation.
KERRI WOLTER, FOUNDER
Achievements and Ongoing Efforts
Since our establishment, VulPro has released over 50 captive-bred vultures into the wild and successfully rehabilitated more than 450 vultures with a 75% survival rate post-release. We monitor released birds’ survival and movements through GPS data, providing critical insights into their behaviour and habitat use. Our ongoing presence in the field has increased local landowner engagement, enhancing awareness of the plight of African vultures.
Our holistic and scientific conservation work showcases how each bird plays a role in saving wild populations. We continue to strive for improved methods and aim to expand our efforts into other countries where vultures have become scarce or extinct. Our broader goal is to ensure that vultures are not forgotten, recognising that it is significantly easier to supplement an existing population than to reintroduce a species from scratch.
By integrating these four pillars, VulPro aims to create a sustainable future for African vultures, ensuring their survival and promoting the health of ecosystems they inhabit. Our innovative and collaborative strategies position us as leaders in vulture conservation, making a significant impact on the preservation of these vital scavengers.