Skip to main content

Vultures

 


I LOVE this photo. The silhouette of vultures perched on a dead tree at sunset is eerie and dramatic. I like dramatic anything, so I find these creatures fascinating. 

 

I imagine these vultures waiting in the twilight for the wail of a captured impala as a pack of African wild dogs serves the antelope up for dinner. Or, perhaps they are listening to a trio of lionesses taking down a baby giraffe. The sound can never be unheard, but hearing the growls and pitiful cries is like a dinner bell for the birds. Why? Because raptors are scavengers that eat dead animals, whatever is left when the dogs or the lions are sated becomes a delicious and nutritious meal. Sounds disgusting, right?

 

But know, there is nothing gratuitous about the merciless events that take place in the animal world. It's survival.

 

Vultures are vital to the ecosystem. According to National Geographic, "They remove bacteria and other poisons in the environment quickly, consuming carcasses before they decay. Additionally, their stomachs contain a powerful acid that destroys many of the harmful substances found in dead animals."  

 

They are the clean-up team that's called in after a killing! Leave no trace! 

 

Sadly, vultures in Southern Africa are endangered. Circling high above a kill alerts the anti-poaching teams that something has died. Sometimes the killers are poachers. Not wanting to be caught, poachers poison the carcasses of dead animals so the vultures will eat the carrion and die. In one case, 500 vultures fed on one poisoned elephant carcass, all perished in agony. 

 

I've seen a couple of kills in the bush, and it's awful to witness. But the careless killing of species for their body parts or because they interfered with a crime is horrific. This senseless massacre scares me because ". . .without vultures, reeking carcasses would likely linger longer, insect populations would boom, and diseases would spread – to people, livestock, and other wild animals". 

 

Sounds apocalyptic!

 

Thanks again to National Geographic for helping me to better understand the bush!

 

#personalessays #poachersbegone #endangeredvultures #memoir #writing #womenwritersoverfifty #nationalgeographic #insectapocolypse #ilovethebush


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Golden Glow of the Bush

  The Golden Glow of the Bush I have seen some glorious skies during my travels around the world, from the smog-induced fluorescent sunsets in Moscow to the burning red horizon in Lake Tahoe. Looking up toward the heavens at dusk is my favorite time of day.  But, nowhere have I ever been so mesmerized by the setting sun than in the bush. Why? Because the light the fading sun casts on the landscape is like no other. Call it the golden hour or the magic hour, or the hour when a quiet hush blankets the land as day turns to night. Birds sing their bedtime songs, jackals practice their forlorn calls, and predators wake, yawning widely, preparing for the hunt. The fading light signals transformation from the brightness to darkness, from things seen to those unseen.  Lazy, sleeping lions transform from looking like cuddly stuffed animals to ferocious stalkers of anything that moves. Hunger calls them to action, stealthy and relentless in their pursuit. Owls waken, looking for bush animals on

Super Mom

  Super Mom   Super Mom    Seeing a coalition of eight cheetahs in the bush is more than a lucky sighting; it is rare and magical. What's even crazier is that my friends and I had already seen this family many times during the year and a half before taking this photo. Here's their story. Two cheetah sisters had two litters around the same time. Sister one had six cubs, and sister two or three cubs. For whatever unexplainable reason, one of sister two's cubs migrated to sister one's family, making her the mother of seven. She quickly acquired the moniker of Super Mom by all the rangers in the park. One mom, seven cubs. She had to chase them all around when they were babies, feed them (they have about a 58% success rate when chasing down a meal), teach them the ways of the bush, and most of all, keep them safe. Whenever we saw them, they were healthy, playful, and did whatever mom told them to do - move, rest, get down from a tree, get out of the road, stay quiet! We grew

Esther Mahlangu - Ndebele Artist

  This beautiful woman is 92-years-old and lives in a small Ndebele village in Mpumalanga. Esther Mahlangu is an Outsider Artist, self-taught from the age of nine, who has achieved great success with her bold, colorful art reflecting traditional Ndebele culture. It’s not clear, but it seems she never went to school and can only write her name on her artwork. However, she has two honorary doctorates for her contributions to the art world. Her success was serendipitous. In 1986, researchers from France were roaming around looking for traditional art forms. One road led them to the artist’s village, where they became enthralled by Mahlangu’s uniquely painted houses. Right time, right road!  They invited her to create murals for an international contemporary art exhibition at the Magiciens de la Terre in France. Her obscurity was soon over and she quickly became a phenomenon in the Pan-African art world. Her resume is awe-inspiring. Look her up, here’s one link - https://www.sahistory.org