Vulture surveillance system alerts Zambian park to poachers
Satellite-tagged vultures uncover two suspected poisoning incidents near Kafue National Park. Conservation groups alongside Africa Parks and Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife have been using a myriad of tools to protect Kafue's wildlife, including deploying some 40 anti-poaching patrol teams. One of the more innovative approaches is tagging white-backed and hooded vultures with satellite trackers to quickly alert wildlife managers of poached or poisoned carcasses. In many parts of Africa, livestock owners will poison cow carcasses with a deadly agricultural pesticide to kill the cats that come to feast - retribution for lions eating their cattle. But the carcasses also attract the critically endangered white-backed vultures, whose population has declined by more than 90% across West Africa in the past 40 years, largely due to poisoning. "African white-backed vultures will come in really large numbers," said Corinne Kendall, curator of conservation and research at North Carolina Zoo which is leading the program.
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