Freedom of the skies given to captive vultures

MAGGI BARNARD

November/December 2006 – The year is almost over and we are still so busy.  Our ‘Save our species’ children’s campaign are at the printers in Windhoek.  It was near to impossible to pick 7 winners from almost 10 000 designs.  The printed designs will have the children’s name and age printed on heavy cotton, eco friendly shopping bags.  We will have them in the stores all around Namibia for the holiday season.

September 2006 – REST partnered with the Birds of Prey Working Group of Endangered Wildlife Trust and performed a special capture of wild vultures for tag testing. The old system of banding the legs has been studied extensively at REST as we have such a strong re-sighting programme.  We tagged 58 White Backed Vultures with the new option of patagial tags in the wings.  We are conducting visual and later physical tests to check for any problems.

October 2006 - Our first Vulture Friendly Signs are being hung at farm entrances.  The farmers love being recognised for their good work and we love to recognise them.

March/May 2006 - The guessing game concerning the sighting of an ususual vulture at the REST hide in March continues. The bird was first thought to be a Ruppels Griffon from East Africa. Closer observation has made identification harder. Speculation ranges from a Ruppels hybride to a genetic abnormality. The REST team are hoping to capture the vulture in order to carry out blood sampling and genetic testing. We will keep you updated.

click to view a picture of the vulture

March 2006 - A very unusual vulture visitor showed up at REST in lateMarch. She is ulike any bird ever recorded in the world and a team of experts is currently trying to figure out what she is.

November 2005 - Our successful flight for the plight airshow attracted thousands of visitors and was loved by donors, the public and particapants. The media is thanked for all their support.

October 2005 - The first 13 Cape Griffon Vultures from South Africa were released. Unfortunately 2 birds died of natural causes within the first month. While this is expected as part of any reintroduction, it was still upsetting. The remaining birds seem to be visiting all parts of the country, and it is hoped that they will resettle near REST.

August 2005- the anticipated official opening of the new vulture hide and education centre should take place the first week of September.  Raleigh international is currently completing the roof.  The building is fantastic and it is anticipated that this will be one of the most user friendly vulture viewing hides in the world.  Both BBC and New Zealand film crews supplied suggestions from a filming point of view and visitor suggestions and observations have been remembered and incorporated.

July 2005 - our most recent sexing results have been returned from South Africa.  Professor Gerhard Verdoorn discovered a method for distinguishing the difference between male and female Cape Griffons and probably white backed vultures and taught Maria Diekmann.  Our recent results add up to 18 birds that have been visually sexed, DNA samples taken and tested.  We have been 100% correct.  A major paper is envisioned on this topic.

6 July 2005- REST entered the nest of sky banker and his white backed mate and discovered that their egg had a huge crack and the chick could be heard peeping.  This was done 'on camera' as BBC was filming at the time and attached a camera to the hat of staff member Sacha.  We were in and out of the nest within 10 minutes.  Sky banker - who was on egg duty, did not even leave the tree and sat on the egg again before we had even removed the ladder from the area.  What a wonderful father!!!  We chose to leave the chick in the nest rather than removing.  We hope that it survives until it will be large enough for us to reenter the nest and just take some DNA samples for our hybridization testing.

5 July 2005 - Last years Cape Griffon chick was recorded for the first time feeding at the REST site.  This is very exciting.  Not only does it increase our Namibian population to 12, but it was believed that this chick had died in the egg or soon after.