Poison suspected in Kenya vulture deaths

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Vulture numbers are declining in an important African wildlife reserve and poisoning may be to blame, conservationists say.

Wildlife activists say farmers around Kenya's Masai Mara reserve sometime lace the bodies of dead cattle or goats with a toxic pesticide called furadan aimed at killing carnivores that prey on the livestock, but one such carcass can poison up to 150 vultures, the BBC reported Friday.

In the face of a 60 percent reduction in vulture population in the reserve, the U.S.-based Peregrine Fund has called for the use of furadan to be banned in the region "to preserve these keystone members of the scavenging community."

"People may think of vultures as ugly and disgusting, but the birds are essential for the ecosystem," Munir Virani, director of the fund's Africa programs, says.

Vultures' taste for carrion makes them an ecological cleanup force, ensuring the region is not littered with bodies, helping contain the spread of disease and recycling nutrients, he says.

"If we lost the vultures," Virani says, "tourists would have to travel around the reserve with face masks on, because the stench from rotting wildebeest carcasses would be unbearable."