The sanctuaries trying to save
birds of prey from extinction in Kenya
(Courtesy of Al Jazeera)
Poison, deforestation and power lines have pushed the African raptor
population to a 90 per cent decline in the last 40 years.
Raptor technician John Kyalo
Mwanzia rehabilitates a juvenile fish eagle to flight after it was treated for
grounding injuries sustained in a territorial fight at the Lake Naivasha
habitat, at Soysambu Raptor Centre. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
Simon Thomsett tentatively removes a pink bandage
from the wing of an injured bateleur, a short-tailed eagle from the African
savannah, where birds of prey are increasingly at risk of extinction.
“There is still a long way to go before healing,”
Thomsett explains as he lifts up the bird’s dark feathers and examines the
injury.
“It was injured in the Maasai Mara national park,
but we don’t know how,” says the 62-year-old vet who runs the Soysambu Raptor
Centre in central Kenya.
The 18-month-old eagle, with a distinctive red beak
and black body, was brought to the shelter five months ago, where about 30
other injured raptors keep it company.
The sanctuary in the Soysambu reserve is one of the
few places where the birds of prey are safe.
A study published in January by The Peregrine Fund,
a United States-based non-profit organisation, found that the raptor population
has fallen by 90 percent on the continent over the last 40 years.
“You can go down a road today for maybe 200km [125
miles] and not see a single raptor,” Thomsett says.
“If you did that 20 years ago, you would have seen
a hundred.”
Critically endangered Ruppells vultures warm themselves in the morning sun at the Naivasha Raptor Centre [Tony Karumba/AFP]
The reasons for the decline are multifold.
Vultures and other scavengers have died from eating
livestock remains, falling victim to a practice adopted by cattle farmers who
poison carcasses to deter lions from approaching their herds.
Deforestation also plays a part as does the
proliferation of power lines across Africa that prove fatal for birds who perch
on them to hunt prey.
Some species are shrinking so fast that
conservation initiatives will not yield results, says Thomsett. “We are too
late.”
Birds of prey also suffer from an image problem.
“Vultures are seen as ugly, unsightly, dirty and
disgusting,” says Shiv Kapila, who manages a bird sanctuary at the Naivasha
national park which lies around 50km (31 miles) from the Soysambu reserve.
Some communities even go so far as to kill species
such as owls and lappet-faced vultures, believing they bring bad luck.
“We have to convince people that not only are they
absolutely gorgeous but also incredibly useful as well,” he says, as
long-legged Ruppell’s vultures and pink-headed lappet-faced vultures rub
shoulders inside a cage.
A
lappet-faced vulture, that is critically endangered, in its habitat at the
Soysambu Raptor Centre [Tony Karumba/AFP]
Educating people about birds of prey is essential,
says Kapila, who organises school trips to the sanctuary and visits to local
communities to shift public opinion.
“We can see a lot of difference in attitudes,” says
25-year-old vet Juliet Waiyaki, who began working at the Naivasha sanctuary
last year, helping to care for the 35 birds of prey housed there.
But she sometimes questions whether her work as a
vet makes an impact.
“I can’t tell you if by us saving eight vultures
out of 300,000 … if that makes a difference,” Waiyaki says. “But we do our
part.”
At the Naivasha sanctuary raptors can stay from
just a few days to several years. Staff often travel across the country to
rescue injured birds.
“We take an injured bird from the field or members
of the public bring them to us and we treat them,” says Kapila, adding that 70
percent of his patients eventually recover enough to return to the wild.
Despite the massive decline in numbers, Thomsett
sees “room for optimism”, especially when he thinks of injured birds that
seemed to have “had no chance whatsoever … [but] are alive and well today”.
He even gets return visitors, he says, with some
birds coming back to greet him years after they are released into the wild. “It
is extremely rewarding,” he says.
Mwanzia subdues a critically endangered white-backed vulture that is being prepared for an X-ray scan of its wing. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
The white-backed vulture had a broken wind and tissue damage from a hyena's bite while jostling for a carcass in the Maasai Mara National Reserve. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
Thomsett holds on his arm a crowned eagle nicknamed 'Helen'. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
Mwanzia
poses with 'Helen'. The crowned eagle is unable to fly due to a damaged wing
and compromised eyesight sustained after it was captured by villagers in a
neighbouring county. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
Kapila checks on 'Phil', an African spotted eagle owl. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
A juvenile fish eagle takes to flight during a rehabilitative excercise session at Soysambu Raptor Centre. [Tony Karumba/AFP]
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