We saw vultures scavenging on a kill in Africa

in #life7 years ago

Hi I'm Danny! I'm travelling around the world! Follow me.

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I'm staying in one of the many wildlife conservancies that border the Maasai Mara national reserve in Kenya. For the next couple weeks I'm going to try and post each evening from The Naboisho Conservancy.


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As we were driving through the bush today we spotted a hartebeest carcass surrounded by scavenging vultures.



The Vulture has somewhat an ugly reputation but they are actually one of the most important animals in the entire ecosystem. There's a huge need for education amongst the Maasai people because recently they have been poisoning animal carcasses to retaliate against lions killing their cattle.

The lions eat the poisoned carcass and die, then when the vultures come in to scavenge they are also poisoned. It's a vicious cycle.



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Vultures are incredibly important for combatting disease. There are so many prey and predators here that the Maasai Mara is littered with kills and disease. The vultures come in and clean up the environment till there is nothing left except bones and the skulls of the dead animals. Hyenas also play this role to an extent too.

The ecosystem is under threat and could collapse if vultures continue to die at the rate they have been. We were meeting young Maasai cattle herders to help them understand their fragile ecosystem.



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As we were leaving we saw an Eland - the biggest antelope in Africa.


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Awesome pictures :)

This is another proof, humans need to understand its environment and really need to learn lot. Like what you have sited in this post, the cattle herders think they are right in what they do. And they only care of themselve, but they don't care to others. The effect is a wide range catasthrope, first for there cattle, and the worst there iwn kind. Infected with disease from the dead. Lets assume vulture extinct.

Very interesting and great photos. I'm now following.

The images are incredible, very good post, thanks for sharing

Ugly and at the some time so beautiful and wonderful! Incredible photos!

😲😲😲😲😲

Dude that is sick! NO really it is sick..

Wow! They have a pretty long neck!

oh my gosh they are terrifying yet beautiful at the same time!

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