African vultures are facing a crisis. In 2012, all African vultures, except one, were declared threated by Birdlife International after the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) review of species Red List Index had recorded lowest records of these species.
About 61% vulture deaths are from poisoning. This is due to the use of poisons by poachers of elephants and other animals, along with lead ammunition used by both hunters and poachers. Vultures feed on carcasses in large numbers which makes them susceptible to poisoning. Two noted poisoning hotspots in Zambia are around the Luangwa valley and the Southern parts of the Kafue Flats. Other reasons for their population decline include traditional beliefs such as the use of vulture’s eyes to predict the future, harmful chemicals that are used to poison vultures, persecution because they are not pretty birds and deaths due to electrocution as a result of collisions with power cables and infrastructure.
Why should we care?
Vultures are iconic birds of prey and are vital to our ecosystems. They are dubbed as nature’s most efficient scavengers because of their eating habits – being carnivorous they mostly feed on carrion. They prefer fresh meat, but also consume carcasses that are so rotten it is toxic to other animals. Mostly overlooked, vultures play a unique and important ecological role because they help prevent the spread of diseases, especially from old, rotting meat. They are also useful as they alert wildlife authorities about dead animals and carcasses in the wild, as their large numbers are easily sighted from a distance, as they circle in the sky.
Not all hope is lost
In Zambia BirdWatch Zambia, are in partnership with the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, along with others, and are championing the conservation of vultures. Their conservation activities include:
Establishing Vulture Safe Zones. This is being achieved byworking with farmers and landowners to deliberately put out safe food for vultures, lessoning the risk of them being poisoned.
Spreading awareness on the vulture crisis. Through tailored awareness programs, for instance in 2019, BirdWatch Zambia carried out interviews and visits to farmers and schools reaching over 5,000 individuals, telling them about the importance of vultures and their plight.
Wildlife Poisoning Response Training done in partnership with Endangered Wildlife Trust. This involves the provision of skills to individuals on how to identify poisoned birds, examining them and collecting evidence to be used in court cases. They also equip them with skills on how to neutralize poisons and treat birds safely.
If you would like to take part in vulture conservation projects run by BirdWatch Zambia, and their supporting partners, then visit www.birdwatchzambia.org ….
For more information on vulture species, follow this link
The winner of the 2020 Kasanka Bat Season T-shirt competition is Maxie Fuchs:
“I have been in Zambia for 2 years now and do not want to stay anywhere else! I am originally from South Africa, Pretoria. My friend told me about the competition and because we did the bat experience last year, and I love designing, I decided to enter. I believe in less is more when it comes to designs. I hope the design will contribute a lot to the Kasanka Trust. Even though it rained last year when we visited Kasanka, the bat experience was still amazing!! What a wonderful privilege to be able to experience it again!!”
Out of the many creative and amazing designs submitted, Maxie’s design was chosen and the T-shirts have now been printed and are ready to wear. Maxie is a keen supporter of wildlife conservation – you might have spotted her, and the GOGA team, at the 2020 Fuchs Elephant Charge, where they were placed 9th, also winning the NewGrowCo best checkpoint for looking after competitors and their vehicles.
The first 2020 Bat Season T-shirts are being worn by His Excellency, the French Ambassador to Zambia, and his lovely wife Marie-Christine. The Kasanka Trust thanks him for his major contributions towards the park’s projects and wishing them well on their next adventures.
The Trust also thanks all the participants who sent in their incredibly creative designs and to Signs of the Times, Lusaka for their rapid response in getting the T-shirts organized before the bats arrived!
You can support Kasanka National Park by buying and wearing this year’s Bat Season’s T-shirt and don’t forget the bats are now in the park, so it is a great time to visit. Go to www.kasanka.com to find out more and check out the Trust’s Facebook page to see this year’s specials.
If you think that conservation is just about observing animals, law enforcement or human/wildlife conflict, then think again. Researchers have been studying the diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus) whose shell is so tough it can be survive being run over by a car or stomped on by hikers in its native North American desert habitat.
This aptly named beetle can withstand compression of up to 150 newtons of force, which is 39,000 times their body weight – about 75% higher than comparable beetles can handle. The diabolical ironclad beetle has a shell which is incredibly crush resistant due to the architecture of its exoskeleton forewings (elytra). It has evolved without wings, therefore not being able to fly away from predators, so its incredibly strong ‘elytra’ enables it to survive attacks from birds and lizards.
Reporting in Nature, Rivera, et al. revealed the secret to the beetle’s incredibly tough structure. They used microscope images, 3-D printed models and computer simulations of the beetle’s armour to explore its ‘elytra’ and other body parts. Within the beetle’s tank-like physique, two key microscopic features help it to withstand crushing forces.
The first is a series of connections between the top and bottom halves of the exoskeleton, with ridges along the outer edges of the top and bottom that latch together. These ridge connections have different shapes across the beetle’s body. Those near the front and around its vital organs are highly interconnected, being stiff and resist bending under pressure. The connective ridges nearer its back are not as intricately interlocked, which allows the top and bottom halves of its exoskeleton to slightly slide past each other, giving flexibility which absorbs compression.
The second microscopic feature found was a rigid joint, or suture, that runs the length of the beetle’s back, connecting its right and left sides. A series of protrusions (called blades) fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, joining the two sides. These blades contain layers of tissue glued together by proteins and are highly damage resistant. So when the beetle is squashed, tiny cracks form in the protein glue between the blade layers and these small, healable fractures allow the blades to absorb impacts without completely snapping.
Rivera suggests that their “observations could be applied in developing tough, impact- and crush-resistant materials for joining dissimilar materials. We demonstrate this by creating interlocking sutures from biomimetic composites that show a considerable increase in toughness compared with a frequently used engineering joint.”
This opens up the possibility for engineers and architects to use beetle inspired designs that have superior mechanical properties – such as for far sturdier airplanes, bridges, buildings and vehicles. With the huge variety of insects we have on our planet who knows what else could inspire new designs for technology?
You can read more about the diabolic ironclad beetle and the resesarch techniques Rivera and his team used at nature.com and Berkeley Lab’s news centre.
Human wildlife conflict occurs when wild animals pose a direct and recurring threat to the livelihood or safety of people, leading to their persecution of that species. Livingstone has been experiencing an upturn in human wildlife conflict in some areas, including Linda, Maloni, Nakatindi and, Mwandi neighbourhoods. These areas have been prone before because many wildlife species, such as elephants, seasonally migrate in and around the surrounding conservation areas.
Why are these incidents, especially with elephants, increasing?
Increase in both humans and elephants’ populations.
Blocking of elephant corridors due to developments, such as new residential settlements and farms.
Transboundary movements by elephants, influenced by several factors including poaching in one country which causes them to cross over to neighboring countries or a change in weather patterns.
Lack of awareness and education on wildlife species, especially, how people should safely respond when they feel threatened.
What is being done in Zambia?
Here, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), together with many supporting NGOs such as Conservation and Tourism Society (CATs), Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) and Conservation Lower Zambezi (CLZ) – work together to help provide solutions for local communities dealing with human wildlife conflict. Their activities include extra human wildlife conflict patrols for quick response and prevention of these conflicts, Chili growing to help protect the Elephants in the South Luangwa National Park from poaching. Chili fences are built and used as detergents to ward off elephants and protect crops because elephants have been mainly responsible for crop damage according to a Human Wildlife Conflict report conducted in 2012.
Conflict between people and wildlife is one of the main threats to the continued survival of many wild species all over the world. It is also a significant threat to local human populations. If solutions to conflicts cannot be found then, local support for wildlife conservation also declines.
To support the amazing work that organizations are doing visit their websites and social media pages above.
Kasanka National Park’s sky is now full with millions of straw-coloured fruit bats flying in to feed on the abundant fruits that grow in and around the park. Your best chances of seeing these bats is at the Bat Forest, located inside the park, where they spend their days roosting, before the skies once again darken as they fly out in their millions at dusk.
This amazing migration – thought to be the largest mammal migration in the world – only takes place at Kasanka National Park between mid-October and the New Year.
Facts about fruit bats
Did you know that bats make up around a quarter of mammal species around the world? With over 1,200 bat species worldwide they are one of the largest mammal groups, with Africa being home to about 25% of all known bat species.
Kasanka National Park is home to 33 known bat species, with three more species still being studied. Out of these, seven are fruit bats, with the most famous being the straw-coloured fruit bat. These fruit eating bats are often seen as wasteful feeders, discarding indigestible parts of fruit such as pips and seeds, as they eat. These pips and seeds then fall onto the ground below bat feeding sites where new plants then germinate and grow. So bats play a crucial role within our ecosystem as they are seed dispersers for numerous varieties of plant species.
Find out more about this amazing mammal migration
You can find out more information about all the different mammals and birds that live and visit the park, how to visit and the different types of activities and accommodation on offer at www.kasanka.com
