see bellow

I'd rather go birding...
***************************************
Itai Shanni 
General Manager 
Hula Birdwatching Centre 
Israel Ornithological Centre (BirdLife partner in Israel) 
TEL: +972-523-689773 
iochula@netvision.net.il 
www.hula-birding.com

itaisha1@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/itaisha1

P.O.Box 63
Yesod Hamaala 12105
Israel
OR
P.O. Box 47419 
Nairobi 
Kenya



Hi all

As you will see from this correspondence there are real concerns that East Africas vultures will soon go the way of West Africas where a 97% decine over 30 years has been documented.

Lack of natural food rather than direct or indirect poisoning has been the main issue in West Africa.

This is becoming an issue in East Africa but here the main concerns are indirect poisoning where poachers use poisoned bait to kill either large mammals for food, esp at water holes, or preditors, an issue with some pastoralists. Furadan is the poison of choice, a widely available agricultural chemical.

There have been 2 cases in Ruaha that I have heard about and I hear of at least one similar incident in the Selous.

None of these incidents have been documented. It is important that they are. Many park ecologists are on this email group but we never hear from them. This is something they could report on.

I will circulate this msg beyond our group and ask that others do the same.

I want to document every and any case that you hear about, even 2nd hand ad hoc information will be useful in trying to establish the extent of this threat.

For those of you in the field these past few years, your feelings for any decline would be much appreciated.

THERE IS NO HARD DATA SO WE HAVE TO GO WITH WHAT WE HAVE.

more to follow

Neil

 
Neil and Liz Baker, Tanzania Bird Atlas, P.O. Box 1605, Iringa, Tanzania.
Mobiles: 0786-404792 and 0784-834273.
http://tanzaniabird atlas.com
Subscribe to: tanzaniabirds- subscribe@ yahoogroups. com



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Neil & Liz Baker <tzbirdatlas@ yahoo.co. uk>
To: Munir Virani <tpf@africaonline. co.ke>; doug@adu.uct. ac.za
Cc: Mark Anderson <manderson@half. ncape.gov. za>; Les Underhill <les.underhill@ uct.ac.za>
Sent: Monday, 21 April, 2008 10:04:00 AM
Subject: Re: PAOC vultures


Munir

Ruaha not Mikumi and a single case in the Selous. Only 3 cases in total that I am aware of.

Getting Furadn banned will not be easy and, in any case, the'll just revert to a different pesticide.

but yes, of course we do not have the count data, no one has looked. I can only talk about distribution not absolute numbers.

Bummer that time and money is being wasted on diclofenic as an issue. Met the guy in the Birdlife office looking at this but he's only a part time vol.

For sure we can and will discuss all this, the future is far from rosy.

Neil

 
Neil and Liz Baker, Tanzania Bird Atlas, P.O. Box 1605, Iringa, Tanzania.
Mobiles: 0786-404792 and 0784-834273.
http://tanzaniabird atlas.com
Subscribe to: tanzaniabirds- subscribe@ yahoogroups. com



----- Original Message ----
From: Munir Virani <tpf@africaonline. co.ke>
To: Neil & Liz Baker <tzbirdatlas@ yahoo.co. uk>; doug@adu.uct. ac.za
Cc: Mark Anderson <manderson@half. ncape.gov. za>; Les Underhill <les.underhill@ uct.ac.za>
Sent: Monday, 21 April, 2008 9:33:52 AM
Subject: Re: PAOC vultures

 
Hi Neil:
 
Thanks for this. 
 
Thiollay very kindly offerred some of his unpublished road counts for Kenya for 1976 and 1988 which fortunately covered the exact road sections that Simon and I have been covering around the Mara since 2003.
 
The declines especially with vultures has been staggering! For example, In the Mara, we are currently averaging 112 Gyps vultures per 100 km per visit (during the peak of the wildebeest migration) compared to Thiollay's 256 Gyps vultures per 100 km. These figures are mirrored for all other vultures and especially Egyptians where Thiollay saw 20 vultures in one section in 1976, and we have seen NONE! 
 
My plea to you therefore is to reconsider making a broad statement such as "Tz is one of the few countries where these large raptors are still doing rather well". I acknowledge that Tanzania has vast areas that are protected and therefore you are right if you compare the situation with other African countries. Furadan is killing off everything here in Kenya and I believe there have been mass poisonings in Tanzania (Mikumi??) where hundreds of vultures have died. 
 
Let's discuss this more please.
 
Thanks,
 
Munir