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| A Palm-nut Vulture rummages through elephant bones in Meru National Park, Kenya. |
One of the most important of all ecological species that can be found in Kenya's national parks are the vultures. Their presence is extremely essential to maintaining a healthy and disease free environment as they are the primary cleaners of dead and decaying wildlife that scatter the vast savanna. Patrolling the ground as they glide through the thermal air currents, these park angels as i like to call them, are constantly on the job looking out for a potential cleanup.
Whether wildlife have died by predation or disease, vultures will fly down to a carcass and as they begin to feed, will ingest any toxins or dangerous pathogens that would have otherwise been dangerous to other animals. These birds of prey can consume fresh or decayed meat without getting sick themselves, so if there were no more vultures left to clean up the carcasses, the potential of an epidemic arising from rotting flesh would cause a natural catastrophe.
Sadly, these Park angels are now under threat of extinction. Among the causes are habitat loss, lethal consumption of veterinary drugs that is administered to dying cattle, ritual medicinal poaching for body parts, and accidental or deliberate poisoning, among many other reasons.
This International Vulture Awareness Day, lets take a few moments to fully educate at least two other people about the importance of these birds by explaining how their survival, is critical to the existence of all the other wildlife.
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