When you hear the word raptor, your mind is often taken back to gory and tense scenes from the Jurassic Park movies. Today’s raptors did in fact evolve from dinosaurs, but these are birds of prey with a hooked upper beak, powerful feet, unbelievably strong talons and binocular vision. 3 days Masai Mara
The most common forms of raptor found in Africa are the eagles, vultures, owls, falcons and hawks. They are an incredible species whose importance has been neglected, their situation increasingly dire and their role in Africa underestimated. In fact, the life of the modern day raptor does sound like it should belong in a movie, with flying creatures, large enough to take a small animal, the near extermination of a species through poisoning and an alien race changing life as an entire species knows it, unfortunately, it is not a movie. African safaris Uganda
There are bird enthusiasts who will actively seek out these creatures, but when the main African attractions include animals such as lions, rhinos, elephants and leopards, the protection allocated to these birds is extremely limited. It is easily recognizable that along with development comes an increased pressure on most of Africa’s wildlife, but it becomes an even greater issue when what is at stake include culture and poverty. This, on a continent which boasts 34 per cent of the world’s raptor species and a quarter of the world’s owl species! Uganda birding tour packages
Wintering area
In East Africa alone, there are 78 diurnal species and 16 nocturnal species, the richest concentration in the entire world, and Africa is also the most important wintering area for migrating raptors from Europe. Considering this, it would be interesting to see how many people in Africa have even heard of World Migratory Bird Day, which has taken place every year for almost five years now. Birding safaris
The persecution and threat of extinction of these animals is high, and these are animals that are estimated to have been in existence for 150 million years. Even when we examine our history, it appears that we, the hominids, may have migrated into savannah areas as a result of raptors! This is something that was speculated following the discovery of a two-million year old child’s skull, named Australopithecus africanus, meaning the “southern ape of Africa”, where, following one of the greatest murder mysteries, it was discovered that the child had in fact been killed by the African crowned hawk eagle. Masai mara balloon safari
Dr Munir Virani, a man who has dedicated his life to the study, education and protection of these birds, and continues to so with the Peregrine Fund (www.peregrinefund.org) and on the African Raptor Network (www.africanraptors.org), gave valuable insights in his talk on ‘Enraptured by Raptors’ at the Kenya National Museum and Kenya Wildlife Service headquarters in October. There is even a ‘Red Data List’ being developed for Africa so that the severity of the situation can be assessed. This would seem to be particularly valid in the case of the vultures of Eastern Africa, where an extremely sinister situation unfolds.
Vulture Poisoning
In the early 90s, it became apparent that vulture mortalities were causing severe declines in their populations in East Africa. An example of this was in 1995 when Bernard Mburu did a study of Egyptian vultures in Hells Gate, Kenya. His research was cut short when one poisoning incident saw the death of all three pairs. They have not been seen in the park since.
By SAMANTHA SPOONER
