Vulture and Eagle Tracking

We GPS tag vultures in Kenya with our partners, Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Bird of Prey Trust, to allow us to track down poisoned carcasses almost in realtime using the vultures as sentinels of poisoning. When we are able to identify a poisoning incident in time, our team rushes to the spot to clean the site and prevent many more animals from dying.

Large eagles are among the fastest declining raptors on the continent and Martial Eagles are the largest of them all. Together with the Mara Raptor Project, we study their foraging ecology using GPS trackers, thereby learning intimate details about their daily ranging behavior and the occurrence of potential conflict when these majestic eagles predate on lambs and chickens.

Very little is known about the migratory movements of most of Africa’s raptors. Using GPS transmitters on Wahlberg’s Eagles, we are now identifying their main nonbreeding areas and migratory pathways that will allow targeted conservation.

Vultures are among the fastest declining birds on the planet today, and their conservation requires special efforts as every individual counts. Our team was trained in handling and treating poisoned vultures by some of the best in the field, Simon Thomsett and Shiv Kapila, and rehabilitation of poisoning vultures and eagles has become a key component of our collaborative program.

Not only vultures, but also scavenging eagles die as a result of poisoning targeting lions and hyenas by shepherds. We track these Tawny Eagles such as this one to see how and where they fall victim to poisoning.

This Augur Buzzard flies off with a tracking device on its back, which will provide detailed insight into how this declining species copes with multiple threats in its surroundings, including wind turbines.