CAPE GRIFFON VULTURE --- Gyps coprotheres
Size : appr. 95 cm

Weight : avr. 7.3 - 11 kg

Wingspan : appr. 2.55 m

Status : CRITICALLY ENDANGERED
A Cape Griffon among feeding White-backed vultures
THE SCARCEST VULTRE IN NAMIBIA. It is bigger than the White-backed vulture and is beige in appearance. The distinguishing features are the honey-colourd eyes and a thick, naked blueish neck. Immature birds are quite often mistaken for White-backed vultures.

The nesting sites are located on the ledeges of high cliff faces. The monogomous pair lay one egg. Cape Griffons form large breeding colonies and are not terretorial.

It can cover great distances in search of food. Carcasses are located aerially and also by following other scavengers/carnivores. Soft tissue and bone fragments form the main part of the diet, with the Cape Griffon often waiting for the Lappet-faced to open up the carcass.
The light eyes are unmistakable.
The Waterberg colony of Cape Griffon Vultures, on the cliffs of the Waterberg Plateau Park in the Otjiwarongo district is the last remaining colony in Namibia.  During its heyday in the 1950's, the Waterberg colony supported approximately 500 birds.  Today there are only between 6 - 11 Cape Griffons left !  Research has shown however that there is hope.  The threats these birds face can be mitigated quickly by  attention and community awareness.

They are efficient scavengers, working together to cover large areas searching for carrion.  Their efficiency may be their undoing however, and large numbers are sometimes killed feeding on carcasses  poisoned by local farmers to control leopard and jackal.  Power lines are another danger, especially to young Cape Griffons, who typically migrate long distances to 'nursery areas', returning to their birthplace after 5-6 years.  Only 20% survive to adulthood.

Other Threats

Habitat

The Waterberg area suffers from bush encroachment.  Indigenous thorny species of small trees make it hard for the Cape Griffon to spot carcasses and once they do, they have a hard time taking off with a full crop of food because of their high wing loading (heavy body versus wingspan).  In other words, Cape Griffons need a good runway.  Most of the Cape Griffon's foraging area is on private farmlands where they are vulnerable to poisoned carcasses and mass electrocutions at power lines.

 

Diet Deficiencies

Due to the development of farming in the once open bushveld, migration patterns of large game herds have been replaced by domestic stock causing a decrease in available food sources for the vultures. 

The drop in large carnivores in the vulture's foraging area due to farming activities has resulted in bone abnormalities due to calcium deficiency in vultures.  In the past carnivores would break up bones into small fragments, and the vultures would gather these chips to feed to their young as a source of calcium.  

Conservation Efforts 

  • Implementing public-awareness programmes in the communal and commercial farming communities and developing a pamphlet on poisons and their relationship to raptors

  • Giving public talks to a variety of school and community organizations
  • Observing and photographing the birds at the Waterberg and creating Vulture Passports.  This information will be used to identify the current population of birds, and to determine the interaction between different species, and feeding times.
  • Providing supplementary feeding areas or 'vulture restaurants' at the Waterberg breeding cliffs, REST headquarters and rotating restaurants on private farmland within the vulture's foraging range
  • Seeking funding for a telemetry (satellite collar) project to monitor the current population, and to provide information on the birds' foraging areas and habitats, behavioral & social patterns and to determine what the vultures are receiving from these habitats in the form of contaminant
  • Testing all remaining Cape Griffons for contaminates & heavy metals, and to determine the sex of the birds
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