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UFS scientists contribute to effectiveness of vulture restaurants

03 January 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs

Endangerd read more — Prof Aliza le Roux and Dr Mpho Ramoejane at the vulture restaurant, nearly 30 km from Clarens. This is a safe space for vultures to feed, in an effort to increase their declining numbers.

Endangered bird species such as the Cape and bearded vultures attract bird enthusiasts from afar. These birds are close to extinction in Southern Africa and classified as near threatened on the International Union for Conservation Nature (IUCN) list, with a strong global decline in their numbers.

A viewing hide constructed by honorary rangers in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, about 30 km from Clarens in the Eastern Free State, offers tourists the opportunity to view and photograph the birds as they feed at one of South Africa’s close to 200 vulture restaurants.

This tourist attraction is situated in a good location from a conservation perspective, with vulture colonies and – importantly – water close by, according to Prof Aliza le Roux.

Prof Le Roux, Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Entomology on the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) and affiliated to the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU), is working with one of her students, Agnes Mkotywa, on a study regarding the effectiveness of this feeding site.

Poisoned carcasses big threat to vultures

She said there are quite a few vulture restaurants in the area, with the most famous one at Giants Castle.

A vulture restaurant is an area where park rangers drop non-poisoned carcasses, mostly donated by nearby farmers. Poisoned carcasses, bait for other animals such as jackals and caracals, are one of the biggest threats to vultures.

The vulture restaurants, an effort to get vulture populations to grow, are within the reach of Cape and bearded vultures. But, as found in Mkotywa’s study, the initiative has its shortcomings.

Prof Le Roux said the current structures are open, and black-backed jackals come to feed any time of the day and night. “There is more feeding of the jackals than the intended vultures, and the current structure does not protect the vultures against the jackals,” she said. Jackal activity at the vulture restaurant is significantly higher than elsewhere in the park, as supported by camera traps set up in the park by Dr Mpho Ramoejane, currently an ARU postdoctoral researcher.

Raised platform a possible solution

“This is one of our primary research findings. A possible solution is to put up fences. It will, however, keep everything else out and will be an eyesore from a tourist perspective. A raised platform that could exclude the jackals and still provide the vultures with a large landing place, might work,” Prof Le Roux added.

Another finding was that carcasses are not dropped regularly enough. Vultures cannot predict when there will be food.

These findings will be published in peer-reviewed outlets, but it will also be communicated to the management of the South African National Parks (SANParks) to address the problem. “SANParks is involved in the project and wants the information. They said they needed the information and will build on it,” said Prof Le Roux.

Once the suggested changes are implemented, she is excited to scientifically document how these changes are making a difference. This has the potential to guide the management and development of vulture restaurants elsewhere in South Africa and the world.

News Archive

Lecture focuses on how Marikana widows embody the transformative power of art

2015-08-11

Makopane Thelejane

"When I got the news of my husband is dead, I put my hands above my head, as you see me in this picture. I could not bear the ache in my heart." - Makopane Thelejane

A woman looks down on a canvas covered in thick layers of red, dark shadows falling across her face. A brief moment that captures the silently-devastating aftermath of the Marikana massacre that bled into the lives of 34 widows.

It is this silent trauma that was at the centre of the last instalment of the Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series for 2015. “These stories of the Marikana widows are important. It is these stories of silence that live behind the spectacular scenes of the violence,” Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor in Trauma, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) said at the event.

Panel
The lecture, which took place on Monday 27 July 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus, took the form of a panel discussing the theme of “Speaking wounds: voices of Marikana widows through art and narrative”. The panel consisted of members from the Khulumani Support Group, including Dr Marjorie Jobson (National Director) and Judy Seidman (Sociologist and Graphic Artist), as well as Nomfundo Walaza, former CEO of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.

Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

"Then this dark time came, a dark cloud over me. It made me to have an aching heart, which took me to hospital, from losing my loved one, my husband, in such a terrible manner. " - Betty Lomasontlo Gadlela

Trauma made visible
In a project initiated by Khulumani, the Marikana widows were encouraged to share their trauma through painting body maps – in which the widows depicted their own bodies immersed in their trauma – and narrating their personal stories. Throughout the workshops, the focus always remained on the women. As Siedman put it, “the power of this process is rooted in the participants. The statements of what the participants experienced is what’s important.”

Initially silenced and isolated, this group of women has now moved “into a space where they have become connected to each, and stand up for each other in the most powerful ways,” Dr Jobson said. “Our work is conceptualised in terms of giving visibility and voice to the people who know what it takes to change this country; to change this struggle.”

The transformative power of art and narrative
During her response, Walaza pointed out “how art and narrative can transform traumatic memory and become integrated in the survivors’ life story.” This gives individuals the opportunity, she said, “to step into a space of mutual listening and dialoguing in which people bond together.”

Co-hosted by Prof Gobodo-Madikizela and the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, the lecture series forms part of a five-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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