These events caused a media stir, but they also only tell part of the story, says Andr\u00e9 Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Since 2015, more than 2,000 vultures have been poisoned in Kruger National Park and the wider Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media spin placed on the most recent of these incidents seems to totally ignore this fact and the lack of coordinated action to address this challenge by the statutory institutions, especially on the South African side,\u201d Botha says.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_2-1.jpg\")
A mass poisoning incident claimed the lives of 120 vultures in Kruger National Park in May this year. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust.<\/p>\n
The GLTFCA spans a conservation area of roughly 35,000 square kilometers (13,500 square miles) \u2014 an area that straddles the borders of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and includes protected areas like Kruger, Limpopo and Gonarezhou national parks.<\/p>\n
Data from the African Wildlife Poisoning Database<\/a>, operated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the Peregrine Fund, suggest around 2,410 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA in the past decade \u2014 1,928 of those in the South African side of the area. Data from SANParks, the government agency that manages South Africa\u2019s national parks, suggest approximately 694 vultures have been killed by poisoning in Kruger National Park since 2017.<\/p>\n Botha says the largest concentration of incidents has occurred in the northern part of Kruger, and that the true number of vultures killed over the past decade may be even higher.<\/p>\n Poaching and poisoning are not new to the area, which has been beset by both rhino and elephant poaching<\/a>. But recent trends suggest increased targeting of vultures, according to multiple experts.<\/p>\n Kerri Wolter, CEO of Vulpro, a vulture conservation nonprofit, says these events are part of an organized strategy by poachers to rid the landscape of vultures<\/a> as they can act as an early warning for rangers. \u201cWhat\u2019s alarming about these incidents that have happened of late is that there were no body parts removed,\u201d she says. \u201cOne has to assume that it\u2019s related to the poachers actually trying to get rid of and eradicate vultures in our skies.\u201d<\/p>\n This poisoning also affects numerous other species, with experts noting a shift toward carnivore poisoning and poaching in recent years in Kruger and the wider GLTFCA.<\/p>\n Across the GLTFCA, approximately 53 lions have been killed by poison since 2015, compared to 12 the previous decade. According to data from the Endangered Wildlife Trust, 30 lions died from human-linked causes in Kruger in the last two years alone; 10 were caught in snares and 14 poisoned. Other species swept up in this crisis include numerous species of raptors, hyenas and leopards.<\/p>\n Experts underline that the ripple effects of such events across the ecosystem can be large, as vultures play a key role as scavengers in the region, cleansing the landscape of carcasses. This year\u2019s vulture poisoning incidents occurred during the breeding season, which means the true number of casualties is likely higher, Wolter says: \u201cVultures are late to mature and only lay one egg a year, so to lose breeding pairs is catastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n Commercial hunting of species such as impala or bushbuck for the bushmeat trade has led to increasing numbers of carnivore casualties, with experts noting an uptick in hunting and snaring since the COVID-19 pandemic. After harvesting a carcass for meat, poachers often lace it with poison to deliberately kill carnivores or vultures, Botha says. \u201cThat\u2019s sort of what\u2019s been going on the last five years.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s played a part in a notable decline in lion populations in the northern part of Kruger<\/a>, according to research by EWT. \u201cYou have two scenarios with lion poisoning. You have a direct targeting of lions, and then you have almost like the bycatch or by accident,\u201d says Marnus Roodbol, EWT\u2019s lion project manager.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most mortalities we\u2019ve had the last couple of years has been through snaring, where they put out snares to catch bushmeat.\u201d<\/p>\n When hunters find a lion in their traps, he says, they harvest the body. Multiple lion parts \u2014 including stomach fat, claws, teeth, tails and paws \u2014 are taken for the local and international wildlife trade, where they\u2019re often used in traditional medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPoisoning is not a new trend. It\u2019s been ongoing for quite some time,\u201d says Annette H\u00fcbschle, a researcher at the University of Cape Town. In 2018, she carried out a baseline assessment<\/a> of poisoning in the GLTFCA that identified key drivers of poisoning. Back then, her finding was that human-wildlife conflict was one of the biggest issues, often in reaction to carnivores preying on livestock. At the time of her research, vultures were rarely targeted deliberately, but were among the worst-hit species.<\/p>\n H\u00fcbschle urges caution in attributing the recent vulture poisoning in Southern Africa to traditional medicine. While in some cases vulture parts have been harvested, likely for muthi, the local practice of traditional medicine, her research hasn\u2019t found that this plays a significant role<\/a>\u00a0in this region.<\/p>\n She also points out that ready access to \u00a0 pesticides<\/a> facilitates the poisoning. This makes it not only a wildlife conservation issue, but also something that directly impacts human health. Last year, nearly two dozen schoolchildren <\/a>\u00a0died<\/a> in South Africa and hundreds more people fell ill due to food contaminated with pesticides, including aldicarb, an agricultural pesticide frequently detected at vulture poisoning incidents.<\/p>\n \u201cThese horrendous [vulture] poisonings in the last few weeks are also shining a limelight on this intersection that it\u2019s not just wildlife that are impacted, but usually people are involved, and there are impacts on humans and their livelihoods as well,\u201d H\u00fcbschle says, adding there\u2019s little knowledge of poison supply chains and how they operate across Southern Africa.<\/p>\n In some ways the poisoning incidents this year are outliers, as in the previous 12 months or so, it seemed as though there was a shift away from targeting birds in the Greater Kruger area, according to John Davies, project coordinator of raptor conservation and research at EWT. \u201cIf a trend goes one way, it doesn\u2019t mean that trend doesn\u2019t reverse back again.\u201d<\/p>\n In some parts of Southern and West Africa, demand for vulture parts<\/a> is a driver of poisoning, but no evidence has emerged that hunting the raptors for traditional medicine was behind the recent spate of incidents. This is alarming for some observers trying to understand what else could have prompted a wave of targeted poisonings.<\/p>\n The primary reason is most likely poachers\u2019 efforts to evade detection by law enforcement officials, according to Isaac Phaahla, communications manager at Kruger National Park.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is still uncertain as to whether this is being done to distract the rangers from other illegal activities (such as syndicated and commercial wildlife meat poaching), or to get access to body parts and derivatives from poisoned scavengers for selling,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cIn these cases, the vulture carcasses have been left intact, leaving one to assume that the primary reason is most likely evading detection from law enforcement officials.\u201d<\/p>\n If it\u2019s not yet certain what\u2019s caused a spike in vulture poisoning deaths, it is clear that if the trend continues, it will be catastrophic. In 2018, Campbell Murn, head of conservation, research and education at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, and others modeled the impacts on vultures of low and high levels of poisoning associated with poaching<\/a> in Kruger National Park. The worst-case model \u2014 based on a major incident that causes levels of mortality seen in the Kruger poisonings this year occurring once every two years \u2014 would see populations of vultures plummet to local extinction in as little as five decades.<\/p>\n The poisoning situation today is far worse than that worst-case model, Murn says. \u201cThe next six months are going to be really telling in terms of what happens with this trajectory,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Botha says he\u2019s hopeful that the high profile of poisoning created by the recent incidents will result in concrete action from the authorities. But experts also underline that urgent action is needed to rein in poisoning and wildlife crime in the GLTFCA, moving beyond the reactive response that prevails today. \u201cThe biggest thing that\u2019s lacking is the preventative engagement with communities,\u201d Botha says.<\/p>\n Banner image: A white-backed vulture in Kruger National Park. This critically endangered species is often a victim of poisoning incidents. Image by Brendan Ryan via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n Vulture poisonings in the Serengeti alarm conservationists<\/a><\/p>\n Endangered vulture species nesting in Ghana is rare good news about raptors<\/a><\/p>\n Action plan to save West African vultures targets threat from belief-based use<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Citation:<\/p>\n Ogada,\u00a0D., Botha,\u00a0A., & Shaw,\u00a0P. (2015). Ivory poachers and poison: Drivers of Africa\u2019s declining vulture populations.\u00a0Oryx,\u00a050(4), 593-596. doi:10.1017\/S0030605315001209<\/a><\/p>\n Mashele,\u00a0N.\u00a0M., Thompson,\u00a0L.\u00a0J., & Downs,\u00a0C.\u00a0T. (2021). Uses of vultures in traditional medicines in the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region, South Africa.\u00a0Journal of Raptor Research,\u00a055(3), 328-339. doi:10.3356\/JRR-20-36<\/a><\/p>\n Murn,\u00a0C., & Botha,\u00a0A. (2017). A clear and present danger: Impacts of poisoning on a vulture population and the effect of poison response activities.\u00a0Oryx,\u00a052(3), 552-558. doi:10.1017\/S0030605316001137<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Another](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_3-1.jpg\")
Another vulture poisoning incident in May killed more than 100 vultures. Image courtesy of Vulpro.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_4-1.jpg\")
A male lion in Kruger National Park. Carnivores are also impacted by poisoning in Kruger and the wider GLTFCA. Image courtesy of Marnus Roodbol\/Endangered Wildlife Trust.
\nRising carnivore casualties<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Adobe-Express-file-11.jpg\")
An impala in Kruger National Park. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, experts note an increase in bushmeat hunting that\u2019s having a knock-on effect as snares and poisons target other species, including big cats. Image courtesy of the Peace Parks Foundation.
\nRaising alarm on vulture poisoning<\/p>\n![\"Vultures](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_6-1.jpg\")
Vultures in Kruger National Park. As scavengers, vultures are greatly impacted by poisoning. They\u2019re also targeted in what is known as sentinel poisoning, as they can alert rangers to poaching activity. Since 2015, more than 2,400 vultures have died due to poisoning in the GLTFCA. Image by David Berkowitz via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY 2.0<\/a>).<\/p>\n