Other raptors, as well as mammal carnivores like hyenas, leopards and lions, have also been poisoned. The Endangered Wildlife Trust, which operates the poisoning database in cooperation with the Peregrine Fund, says approximately 53 lions have been killed by poison in this vast cross-border protected area since 2015. In just the past two years, 14 lions are known to have died from poisoning and a further 10 more caught in snares and then killed by poachers.<\/p>\n
John Davies, project coordinator of raptor conservation and research at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, says the series of mass poisonings in May and June triggered meetings involving South Africa National Parks (SANParks), conservation NGOs and other authorities to assess where systems were lacking and could be improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s a big positive,\u201d Davies tells Mongabay.<\/p>\n
Andr\u00e9 Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, also expresses cautious optimism. \u201cWe have witnessed similar meetings in the past, with limited results, but I trust that the current high profile of the recent events will result in concrete action.\u201d<\/p>\n
He calls for a raft of short- and long-term actions to address the multiple array of drivers behind the issues of poaching and poisoning.<\/p>\n
The most urgent need is to increase capacity, resources and collaboration to reduce the intensity and impacts of poisoning and poaching in the GLTFCA, experts say.<\/p>\n \u201cI think all of us are kind of realists,\u201d says EWT\u2019s Davies. \u201cWe can\u2019t live in a fairy-tale land and just pretend poaching will never happen again. There are obviously levels where you probably could say, if you\u2019re losing very small amounts of birds, the population could absorb that and sustain itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Davies points out that the field response<\/a> to the Kruger poisonings in May involved teams of veterinarians, rapid response teams, and stepped-up monitoring of the park. All of this was expensive, but ultimately saved the lives of more than 80 vultures.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s super important work and every vulture that\u2019s rescued is vital,\u201d says Campbell Murn, head of conservation, research and education\u00a0at the\u00a0Hawk Conservancy Trust. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t stop the poisoning from happening in the first place. \u201d<\/p>\n Isaac Phaahla, communications manager for Kruger National Park, says SANParks has taken several steps to address the problem, including developing early detection and response systems, creating rapid mobilization teams, increasing patrols in high-risk areas, and raising awareness and education of pesticide use in nearby communities.<\/p>\n \u201cPoisoning and other wildlife crime is on the increase in the Greater Kruger landscape and a regional and integrated approach is needed to address the growing problem of poisoning, snaring and meat poaching,\u201d he wrote in an email.<\/p>\n On the Mozambique side, in Limpopo National Park, the Peace Parks Foundation<\/a>, which co-manages the protected area, has helped establish an \u201cintensive protection zone<\/a>\u201d at a known poaching hotspot along the border with Kruger National Park. That\u2019s resulted in a \u201cdramatic drop\u201d in trafficking, according to the organization.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is to create equal capacity on each side of the border,\u201d says Gillian Rhodes, program manager for combating wildlife crime at Peace Parks.<\/p>\n A GLTFCA poisoning task team, including representatives from the three partner countries, was established in 2016<\/a> to address and coordinate responses to the issue. On that front, more collaboration is needed, according to Rhodes.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a governance and a coordination point of view, those structures are really useful when you\u2019re working in a cross-boundary and a multi-country landscape like this.\u201d She adds there\u2019s also a need for a dedicated poison response and investigation team across the region, similar to the capacity that EWT has developed in collaboration with SANParks and others.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had very few poison cases actually go through the system and people being actually convicted for the use of poison and poaching,\u201d Rhodes says. \u201cWe really could improve our investigative capabilities around poison crime scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n Ramping up enforcement and tackling corruption, a recognized problem<\/a> among national park authorities,<\/a> are important short-term actions, Rhodes says, but these will only address one side of the high levels of poaching and poisoning.<\/p>\n She and other experts say the poisoning of vultures and other carnivores in the GLFTCA is driven by poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and a lack of economic opportunities for communities in this border region.<\/p>\n Sustainable solutions would therefore include addressing traditional medicine practices that involve vultures and other wildlife parts. Though this practice isn\u2019t considered a major driver of the recent vulture poisoning incidents, engaging with traditional healers and practitioners<\/a> to develop alternatives to their use is still necessary. It is a \u201csocially complex\u201d issue, Davies says, but one that should also be addressed using national laws and legislation.<\/p>\n Davies says providing nearby communities with employment and income linked to conservation may lead to exploring solutions that are usually rejected by conservationists, such as trophy hunting. He says his organization is neutral on the issue, but his personal view is that such an approach could provide income and employment to communities living near protected areas.<\/p>\n \u201cIf people have jobs around protected areas, there\u2019s no reason they wouldn\u2019t care about those protected areas the same way we do,\u201d he says. \u201cThere needs to be more of a mindset, like a long-term game plan on getting to the point that communities are a strong element within the conservation of these protected areas. With that, it\u2019ll bring a whole new wave of kind of management and control on these things that currently, yes, everyone\u2019s attempting to do it, but it still has a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Others, such as Annette H\u00fcbschle, a researcher at the University of Cape Town, emphasize the need to gain a better understanding of how to make dangerous agricultural chemicals and pesticides less readily available for wildlife crime.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are, of course, cross-border issues and the need to stop pesticides coming into countries,\u201d she says. \u201cPesticides that are banned in one country should probably be banned in neighboring countries as well. So, there needs to be some international collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n Rhodes echoes the call: \u201cThere is still a huge dearth of information about the poison supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n Lovelater Sebele, senior vulture conservation officer for Southern Africa at BirdLife Africa, is among many experts who say national strategies to address poisoning and strengthen vulture conservation need to be complemented by regional action.<\/p>\n She points to a regional vulture conservation strategy currently under development. \u201cIt\u2019s good that individual countries have their vulture action plans, but it also means by having this strategy, we are acknowledging the need to actually have collaborative effort across the range states for vultures within the region,\u201d Sebele says. But, crucially, such efforts must be backed by adequate resources \u2014 and this isn\u2019t guaranteed at this stage.<\/p>\n Botha, from the Vulture Specialist Group, also says strategies need to be backed with resources to carry them out. He says he\u2019s hopeful that in the wake of the string of high-profile poisoning events, the regional vulture action plan and a draft poison management strategy in South Africa are steps in the right direction. But he says much more is needed<\/a>, particularly regarding community engagement and law enforcement. <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, just going and managing poisoning sites is a reactive action,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat is lacking is an effective overall strategy that is drafted and agreed upon by all stakeholders and implemented effectively to reduce the prevalence of poisoning across the entire area.\u201d<\/p>\n Increasing knowledge of the movements of vultures, garnered thanks to tracking efforts, is showing that what happens in Kruger National Park and the wider GLTFCA affects vulture populations across the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThese aren\u2019t Kruger birds, they\u2019re not Limpopo birds, they\u2019re not Kimberley birds, they\u2019re not Zambezi birds,\u201d says Murn from the Hawk Conservancy Trust. \u201cThey\u2019re Southern African birds, especially the young ones.\u201d<\/p>\n Banner image: A rapid response to a poisoning event in Kruger National Park in May this year saved more than 80 vultures. Such activities are vitally important, say conservationists, but more action is needed to address drivers of poisoning and poaching. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust.<\/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 In West Africa, hooded vultures vanish as abattoirs modernize<\/a><\/p>\n Citation:<\/p>\n Gore,\u00a0M.\u00a0L., H\u00fcbschle,\u00a0A., Botha,\u00a0A.\u00a0J., Coverdale,\u00a0B.\u00a0M., Garbett,\u00a0R., Harrell,\u00a0R.\u00a0M., \u2026 Bowerman,\u00a0W.\u00a0W. (2020). A conservation criminology-based desk assessment of vulture poisoning in the great Limpopo Transfrontier conservation area.\u00a0Global Ecology and Conservation,\u00a023, e01076. doi:10.1016\/j.gecco.2020.e01076<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/53697850868_ae2a59f3ae_c.jpg\")
A vulture in Kruger National Park. Northern Kruger has seen a large number of poisoning incidents in recent years. Image by Peter Toporowski via Flickr<\/a> (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0<\/a>).
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_3-1-1-e1758199507142.jpg\")
This year, vulture poisonings in and around Kruger have hit critical levels. Stretching back to 2015, more than 2,400 vultures have died due to poisoning in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area. Image courtesy of the Peace Parks Foundation.
\nAddressing poisoning in the short term <\/p>\n![\"Critically](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_61.jpg\")
Critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) in Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe. Image courtesy of Andr\u00e9 Botha.
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_211.jpg\")
A rapid response to a poisoning event in Kruger National Park in May this year saved more than 80 vultures. Such activities are vitally important, say conservationists, but more action is needed to address drivers of poisoning and poaching. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
\nA systemic approach<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Image_4-1-1.jpg\")
A lion in Kruger National Park. Community-based conservation is required to address the root causes of human wildlife conflict that can impact both carnivores and raptor species. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
\nCollaborating with implementation<\/p>\n