KIMBERLEY – The Gariep Bird Club invites the public to an upcoming event focusing on the importance of tagging and monitoring vultures.

During the event in the Lady Oppenheimer Hall at the McGregor Museum in Kimberley, guest speaker Angus Anthony will present “Keeping tabs on Dronfield’s vultures”. Anthony, an ornithologist, has been conducting vulture research for nearly 34 years.

As vultures range across the Northern Cape landscape, tagging and monitoring provide valuable insight into their movements, behaviour and conservation.

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Vultures provide vital ecosystem services in natural, agricultural and rural environments. The important role they play in the cycling of nutrients through the highly efficient disposal of organic waste is crucial to human health and environmental integrity.

Threats to vultures include intentional and unintentional poisoning by farmers and poachers, lead poisoning when they feed on carcasses shot with lead ammunition and ingest lead particles, collisions with structures, electrocution on pylons, drowning in farm dams, destruction of habitat and food sources, climate change, the muti-trade and other human activities.

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• The event commences at 19:00 on Thursday 15 October and payment can be made on arrival. Members pay R20 and non-members pay R30.
• Call Natalie Smit on 072 708 4003 for more information.
• This Saturday, 3 October, the Kimberley Harriers Running Club hosts its annual Vulture Conservation Trail Run, commencing at 08:00 at the Mein Heim Guest Farm. Compete in the 16 km or 5 km run or walk. Entries were open on quicket.co.za until 30 September, but manual entries can be done today, 2 October, at Diamantveld High School Bond Clubhouse in Kimberley from 16:00 to 19:00. Visit Kimberley Harriers Running Club on Facebook for details.

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