A pair of endangered African Egyptian vultures has arrived at the Shamwari Game Reserve, just outside of Gqeberha, after a 16 600km journey from San Diego.
This marks the end of a long and complicated relocation process and the start of a planned breeding program to reintroduce the birds to their native habitat.
The game reserve is a purpose-built vulture rehabilitation, breeding, research, and education facility that will be the Vultures' forever home.
According to Vulpro@Shamwari Game Reserve Chief Executive Officer Kerri Wolter, the two birds are getting on very well.
"They feed and roost together which is a good sign for eventual pairing when the young female reaches maturity."
She says the pair, which have grown up in captivity, are not releasable and will join Shamwari's breeding program, and should this be successful the offspring will join a captive breeding population.
Once this is viable, future offspring will be released at Shamwari in keeping with its ethos of restoring indigenous fauna and flora on the 250 km2 reserve to what it once was. The birds will be fitted with tracking devices.
Egyptian Vultures have faced a catastrophic population decline due to poisoning, electrocution from powerlines, and poaching for traditional medicine. Wild vulture populations on the continent have plummeted by more than 90% over the past 30 years.
The two Egyptian Vultures' move to their bespoke enclosure coincided with the arrival of a larger contingent of birds. These included two young Cape Vulture fledglings which will be released with other captive-bred vultures. Two non-releasable breeding pairs of Lappet-faced vultures, one pair of White-headed Vultures, nine African White-backed vultures, and seven Cape vultures will join the captive-breeding program.
Wolter says transporting the vultures is an immense logistical undertaking. The birds have to be captured, loaded into bespoke crates, and monitored during the journey to ensure they are not stressed.
Security has to be provided throughout.
"The Egyptian Vultures are another milestone in this program which is as important as any other that has brought a species back from the brink of extinction. To see vultures flying over Shamwari again after so long is a testament to VulPro's success against remarkable odds," says Joe Cloete, Shamwari's CEO.
