Posted November 4, 2021 in Conservation
Lappet-faced Vulture Spotted!
The team at Colchester Zoo’s UmPhafa have recently had their first ever sighting of a Lappet-faced Vulture and were excited to see it was tagged!
Using the bird’s tag number, they were able to contact Wild Life Act who in conjunction with Ezemvelo KZN, tag vultures such as this one and monitor them. It was reported back that the young vulture the team had seen was tagged as a fledgling at Imfolozi Nature Reserve during October 2020. He was then seen on Manyoni Reserve on 6th September 2021 and flew over to UmPhafa in October 2021. Manyoni is roughly a 5 hour drive away from the reserve but when flying is probably a few hours less! The young Lappet stayed at UmPhafa for 3 days whilst he fed on a blesbok carcass which had recently been killed by a leopard.
Since sharing this news our team have also been contacted by a local ranch who have also seen tagged vultures on their camera traps as they work together to see where the vultures might be moving to or from.
