A devastating mass poisoning incident in the Mahlangeni Section of the Kruger National Park has left 123 vultures dead, triggering the largest coordinated vulture rescue operation in the parks history, reports Cape town Etc .
According to South African National Parks SANParks, the joint effort between SANParks rangers and Endangered Wildlife Trust EWT officials was able to rescue 84 of the 123 endangered vultures on Wednesday, 6 May.
Within hours, a joint SANParks and EWT team mobilised, arriving on site by 8:20am. There, they discovered the grim reality: a mass poisoning event involving hundreds of vultures, the result of an elephant carcass laced with highly toxic agrochemical pesticides - poison laid by poachers to harvest body parts for the illegal wildlife trade, SANParks said in a statement.
The incident is one of the largest in the park. A total of 116 vultures were found dead at the scene.
Rescue operation detailsAs per the statement , 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.