After days of gentle rain, open grassland covered most of the area. When the sun returned, the African White-backed Vulture — a bird of prey and a scavenger of the savannah — was circling high in the sky where the thermals were strongest. It was using rising columns of warm air to gain altitude and then gliding along invisible flyways, conserving energy while searching for carrion — a dead animal to feed on.
Vultures are masterful soaring birds. They ride what are known as thermals, and they possess exceptionally keen eyesight.
Not every bird is welcomed. In some cultures, where people remain tied to old superstitions, vultures are seen as a bad omen. Yet unlike martial eagles, which hunt and kill, vultures do not kill to survive; they depend on carrion, which forms the major source of their diet.
In the sky, a mixed flock of vultures now covered much of the area, riding the warm air currents near the border between the great wildlife sanctuaries of Ngorongoro and Serengeti. This is where lies the remarkable World Heritage Site of Olduvai Gorge — often referred to as the “Cradle of Mankind”. A river canyon cuts 100 metres deep through the volcanic soils of the Serengeti plains. Buried within its layers are the remains of ancient animals and early hominids.
Under the direction of the late prehistorian Louis Leakey in 1959, the Gorge yielded abundant fossil remains of prehistoric animals dating back at least two million years, and possibly much longer. He also uncovered the remains of the so-called “Nutcracker Man” (Zinjanthropus boisei), whose skull is housed in the Dar es Salaam museum. One cannot help but wish it might one day be returned to its original site or displayed in the Arusha museum.
Nearby lies Laetoli, where in 1979 Mary Leakey discovered the fossilised footprints of hominids believed to be more than three million years old.
The vultures and other raptors were circling above these celebrated sites of human origin. The plains teem with gazelles, impalas and wildebeest with their calves. Once vultures locate potential food, they circle carefully to ensure the animal is indeed dead before swooping down to feed on the carcass.
Humans often hold the mistaken belief that vultures spread disease. On the contrary, vultures help prevent disease by consuming dead and decaying animals at any stage of decomposition. They can endure pathogens that would kill most other creatures. In safari parks, guides refer to them as “nature’s clean-up crew”.
A vulture’s stomach contains a potent mix of strong acid and specialised bacteria. If it feeds on a carcass infected with rabies, cholera or anthrax, the pathogens are destroyed in its digestive system and can no longer spread.
It is unfortunate that these magnificent birds — across almost all species — a vital component of many ecosystems, are now classified as endangered, with some critically endangered by the IUCN. The long list of threats includes poisoning, both deliberate and incidental, habitat loss and electrocution. The sobering reality is that we can no longer afford to sit back and wait for someone else to act.
