SHAUN SMILLIE
It graces our national coat of arms, as a symbol of strength and vigilance, but this mighty bird is in trouble.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has just released data relating to its 2011 Red List for Birds, and the snake-hunting secretary bird has been added to the list of animals facing extinction.
Another South African bird is even worse off. The hooded vulture is now classified as endangered, meaning it has experienced a massive population decline and faces a “very high risk of extinction in the wild”.
The secretary bird, famous for appearing on the national coat of arms of two countries, South Africa and Sudan, is marked as vulnerable.
Just two years ago, both birds were categorised on the Red List as being of “least concern”.
A large distribution range across most of Africa, it was thought, protected them from serious population decline.
“The hooded vulture in the past was a common sight in many African towns, but now they have suffered a decline of 50 percent over the last three generations,” said Mike Jordan, the senior conservation adviser at the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa.
Both birds had experienced population declines because of hunting, poisoning and habitat loss, according to Jordan.
Both birds, he said, were known to scavenge and sometimes they fell prey to carcasses that had been baited with poison to kill jackal.
The hooded vulture is also captured for food in some parts of Africa and is susceptible to diseases such as avian flu.
“There have been reports of vultures being deliberately killed because they give away poaching activities,” Jordan added.
The grasslands on which secretary birds hunt have in recent years suffered from excessive burning and overgrazing.
This change in the grasslands has resulted in declines in the populations of mice and other rodents, which make up the raptors’ diet.
The University of the Witwatersrand plans to conduct a detailed study of the secretary bird, and the hope is that this might shed new light on the long-legged bird of prey which could one day help save them.
Dr Craig Symes, of the school of animal, plant and environmental sciences at Wits, said one of the researchers in the department planned to use GPRS, the same technology used in cellphones, to track secretary birds in the Kalahari.
The research, he said, could provide information on how far the birds range and on their diet, and provide comparisons with other habitats.
Jordan’s worry is that there are currently no active global conservation measure in place to conserve either species.