Cape Vulture(Gyps coprotheres)
This large vulture is of a creamy-buff colour, with contrasting dark flight- and tail-feathers. The adult is paler than the juvenile, and its underwing coverts can appear almost white at a distance. The head and neck are near-naked. The eyes are yellowish, and the bill is black. Juveniles and immatures are generally darker and more streaked, with brown to orange eyes and red neck.
The average length of adult birds is about 96–115 cm with a wingspan of 2.26–2.6 m and a body weight of 7–11 kg. The two prominent bare skin patches at the base of the neck, also found in the white-backed vulture, are thought to be temperature sensors and used for detecting the presence of thermals. The species is among the largest raptors in Africa, next to the lappet-faced vulture. After the Himalayan griffon vulture and the cinereous vulture, the Cape vulture is the third largest Old World vulture. They are also known as the Cape griffon and Kolbe's vulture.
Habitat
The Cape vulture occurs in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Formerly, it could also be found in Namibia and Swaziland. Vagrants are occasionally recorded from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. The species usually breeds and roosts on cliff faces in or near mountains, from where it can fly long distances in search of the large animal carcasses on which it specialises. In the Eastern Cape of South Africa, Cape Vultures were more likely to occupy cliff nest sites on ledges with a smaller depth and at a higher elevation, surrounded by conspecifics.
Diet
The Cape Vulture is a scavenger, feeding at large carcasses where it takes fragments of bones, soft muscles and organ tissues. They travel long distances in flocks while searching for food, and they can locate the carcasses thanks to their excellent eyesight. It often feeds with other vultures’ species. They fight against the other raptors to obtain food. The vultures insert the long bare neck under the skin or crawl into the carcass. They can be fairly numerous around the food, but there is a hierarchy. However, regular fights occur, with harsh, grating calls and threat displays with the wings outstretched or the neck and head held horizontally while they bound towards the rivals with great hops.
Breeding
The breeding season occurs between April and July. The Cape Vulture breeds in large colonies on cliff faces. The nest is a platform made with sticks and lined with dry grass carried in the bill. Both sexes build the nest. The female lays a single egg. The incubation lasts about 55 days, shared by both adults. At hatching, the chick is covered in white down. The parents take turns, as well to incubate as to care the chick which is fed by regurgitation mouth-to-mouth. It fledges about 140 days after hatching.
Unfortunately, very numerous chicks do not survive the first year of their life.
Population
According to the IUCN Red List, they are classed as Endangered(EN). In 2006, the total population was estimated at 8,000-10,000 individuals, roughly equivalent to 5,300-6,700 mature individuals. The global population estimate has been revised with an estimate of 4,700 pairs or 9,400 mature individuals. The population is estimated to have declined by 10% between 1994 and 1999, and over the period 1992-2007, the species declined by 60-70% in eastern South Africa. There remains some uncertainty over the severity of population declines experienced by this species and some populations in South Africa are reported to be increasing.
Threats
The species is assumed to be declining throughout much of its range in the face of a multitude of threats. Sixteen known or suspected mortality factors were identified and ranked at an expert workshop with a decrease in the amount of carrion (particularly during chick-rearing), inadvertent poisoning, electrocution on pylons or collision with cables, loss of foraging habitat and unsustainable harvesting for traditional uses considered the most important factors. The primary threats are currently thought to be contamination of their food supply and possibly a shortage in food supply, negative interactions with human infrastructure and hunting for use in the traditional health industry. Further threats include disturbance at colonies, bush encroachment and drowning. In southern Africa, vultures are caught and consumed for perceived medicinal and psychological benefits. It is estimated that 160 vultures are sold and that there are 59,000 vulture-part consumption events in eastern South Africa each year, involving an estimated 1,250 hunters, traders and healers. At current harvest levels, the populations of this species in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho could become locally extinct within 44-53 years. Should the populations of White-backed Vultures become depleted first, the resultant increase in hunting pressure could cause a population collapse within the subsequent 12 years. Extrapolation from a limited study of traditional healers in Maseru, Lesotho, suggests that, conservatively, nearly 7% of the breeding population in that country would be lost annually for such use. A study in South Africa found that should current rates of exploitation for market trade continue then the populations in Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape could be exhausted within 54 years.
Conservation
Conservation and Research Actions Underway
CITES Appendix II. CMS Appendix II. It is legally protected throughout its range. A multi-species action plan for African-Eurasian vultures is currently being produced, and a Biodiversity Management Plan is being produced by the Cape Vulture Task Force, driven by The Endangered Wildlife Trust and BirdLife South Africa. Some breeding colonies lie within protected areas. Non-governmental organisations have successfully raised awareness among farming communities in South Africa of the plight of this species. Many nestlings of this species were colour-ringed in southern Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. The national electricity supplier in South Africa, in partnership with The Endangered Wildlife Trust, has replaced pylons in some regions with a design that reduces electrocution risk to large birds, and breeding numbers have increased in some areas. Supplementary feeding at vulture restaurants may have helped to slow declines in some areas. The establishment of a restaurant at Nooitgedacht, South Africa, is thought to have helped promote the recolonisation of the former colony there, and another restaurant has possibly contributed the species's recovery in Magaliesberg. Supplementary feeding is known to significantly increase the survival rate of first-year birds in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, and appears to have increased the number of breeding pairs at the Mzimkhulu colony in southern KwaZulu-Natal, although there seems to not have been an effect on breeding success. Additionally, in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, adult vultures did not appear to be dependent on vulture restaurants, but could find enough food from subsistence rural farmland.
Thirty-seven individuals were held in captivity in Namibia in 2011, with 7 breeding pairs from which at least 2 chicks have been hatched. The VulPro project in South Africa holds over 80 non-releasable Cape Vultures in captivity, this includes 10 breeding pairs, with the first successful hatching in September 2011 . The programme aims to release captive-born chicks into the wild to supplement wild populations. In February 2015, seven birds from VulPro and three from the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa were released into an open-topped enclosure so that they could eventually disperse into the wild. In October 2005, 16 birds from South Africa were released in Namibia and, although at least two have perished and one was taken into care with a companion, data on flight patterns and breeding behaviour have been recorded from two birds that were fitted with satellite transmitters. By 2006, five birds had been fitted with satellite tracking collars. In Namibia, both communal and commercial farmers have been educated about the benefits that vultures bring and thus the disadvantages of poisoning carcasses, whilst there is also an education centre and education programme for schools. A conservation workshop on the species was held in March 2006 and was attended by 19 individuals. The group reassessed the status of the species and the threats it faces, and decided on conservation actions. A task force was established and people were identified to manage conservation actions for each of the key colonies in southern Africa. In the East Cape, awareness programmes have led to modifications in cement reservoirs to prevent drownings as well as aiming to reduce indirect poisoning.
A press release was circulated in March 2006 raising awareness of the dangers of using diclofenac in the treatment of cattle. In 2006, the re-establishment of monitoring was expected at the species's only colony in Zimbabwe. A press release was circulated in July 2007 to raise awareness of the impacts of hunting for medicinal and cultural reasons in southern Africa. The threat posed by anti-inflammatory drugs in southern Africa is under investigation. The Hawk Conservancy and The Endangered Wildlife Trust are currently providing training and equipment for anti-poisoning teams so that field staff will have the skills and equipment to respond to a neutralise poisoned carcasses. An expert workshop on the species's conservation was held in South Africa in March 2006. Rehabilitation and release of injured vultures has become an important conservation action. The species is listed as Endangered in the Eskom Red Data Book of Birds of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, and Critically Endangered in Namibia.
Conservation and Research Actions Proposed
Develop conservation plans for each of the 18 'core' colonies through the Cape Griffon Task Force. Protect breeding colonies, and prevent uninhibited access by tourists to nesting sites. Develop captive-breeding projects and mitigate impacts from poisoning and electrocution. Increase availability of livestock carcasses to G. coprotheres in areas where current practices do not allow this. Develop conservation partnerships with the farming community. Investigate the burgeoning exploitation for traditional medicine. Reduce hunting for medicinal and cultural reasons. Monitor food availability, especially through the nestling period. Carry out a complete survey of its breeding sites. Continue population monitoring and demographic studies. Conduct research to assess the potential impact of climate change compared with other threats. Raise awareness amongst pastoralists of the dangers of using diclofenac for livestock. Lobby governments to outlaw the sale of diclofenac for veterinary purposes. A number of recommendations were produced at the 2012 Pan-Africa Vulture Summit: 1) Regulate import, manufacture and sale of poisons; 2) Legislate and enforce measures to prosecute those involved in illegal killing and trade in vulture species; 3) Protect and effectively manage breeding sites; 4) Ensure new energy infrastructure is 'vulture-friendly' and modify existing unsafe infrastructure; 5) Support activities to conserve vulture populations, including research and outreach activities.