A joint team of South African National Parks (SANParks) rangers and Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) officials have rescued 84 vultures from a poisoning incident in the Kruger National Park.
The incident, in the Mahlangeni Section of the park, was detected by EWT’s wildlife poisoning surveillance and detection system, which triggered an alert at 06h05 on May 6, flagging suspicious activity in a remote section of the park.
A joint SANParks and EWT team mobilised within hours, arriving on site by 08h20. They discovered a mass poisoning event involving hundreds of vultures – the result of an elephant carcass laced with highly toxic agrochemical pesticides. The elephant was poisoned by poachers to harvest body parts for illegal wildlife trade.
The incident is one of the largest in the park. A total of 116 vultures were found dead at the scene.
The initial responders – six SANParks rangers and two EWT officials – found two vultures alive but severely affected, roughly 500 metres from the poisoned elephant carcass. These were immediately treated using emergency vulture first aid: atropine, activated charcoal and fluid therapy.
Reinforcements were swiftly deployed. Support teams from the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, Briner Veterinary Services and Wildscapes Veterinary Services mobilised within hours.
At the same time, SANParks activated rangers and aerial support – including the “Hope for Wildlife” helicopter and additional logistics support – making this the first time SANParks helicopters were formally used in a wildlife poisoning rescue of this scale.
What followed was a coordinated, high-intensity rescue effort:
- 84 vultures were rescued alive including white-backed, Cape and hooded vultures.
- 45 were transported by the EWT’s “vulture ambulance”, a specialised mobile unit designed to stabilise poisoned birds en route to treatment facilities.
- 39 more were airlifted by helicopter to the SANParks K9 facility in Phalaborwa for immediate monitoring.
- A final group was transported later that night to Moholoholo for continued intensive care.
- Teams, including vets from Wildscapes and Briner veterinary services, as well as the Moholoholo team, worked through the night to stabilise each bird and keep it alive.
Despite their best efforts, five vultures succumbed to poisoning. However, a remarkable 96% survival rate was achieved among those found alive.
A national wildlife tragedy
In total, 123 vultures were found dead – 102 white-backed vultures, 20 Cape vultures and one lappet-faced vulture – all listed as endangered or critically endangered species. Of these, 116 were already deceased when the team arrived.
This marks one of the largest vulture poisoning events in Southern Africa, and the most extensive coordinated response effort and rescues to date.
Over 20 conservation, veterinary and enforcement individuals were responsible for the rescue and response.
The growing threat of poison poaching
This incident is part of a broader crisis unfolding across Southern Africa: escalating use of poisons in wildlife poaching. Poachers increasingly use agricultural toxins to target high-value species – not just vultures but lions whose body parts are in growing demand for traditional medicine (also known as “muthi”).
This incident is a setback to the vulture population in the Greater Kruger landscape, which is trying to recover from similar incidents in the past.
SANParks is collaborating with various agencies and institutions to address the current increase in poisoning incidents.
