28th Aug REST

28th Aug. Rare & Endangered Species Trust. Near Otjiwaringo.
Long before leaving Australia we looked at volunteering web sites in Namibia but were pt off by the high fees involved. One web site I hit upon was for low cost volunteering of which REST was one of them.
Maria Diekmann is a very full on, passionate woman committed to the preservation of the Cape Griffon Vulture. Originally from the US and a background in politics 25 years ago she made Southern Africa her home after coming here on assignment.
Here, a short distance from Otjiwaringo, she has built an amazing aviary that is the home of three Cape Griffon Vultures as well as a Lappets Vulture and a Batelau Eagle. These birds serve as an educational focus for visiting tourists and school groups as they are unable to be released because of physical trauma in the past. Through them she is getting the message across that vultures play a very important part in the environment with their group ability to reduce a carcass of medium size to skin and bone in an hour. Thus reducing the spread of diseases such as anthrax and rabies, both diseases being prevalent in this area.
Farming practices are one of the main causes of the depletion in vulture numbers and by working with the land owners the vulture support group is trying to reverse the downward spiral. Poisoning carcasses to reduce attacks by leopards and jackals have a flow on affect on the vultures as they would eat the primary source as well as the initial victims of the poisoned animal. The use of vulture restaurants are another method of farmers helping the birds as well as an easy way of getting rid of dead animals. They are an area set aside in some corner of their farm that any dead beasts are taken. As long as they have not been poisoned or recently dipped they are a tasty meal for the local vultures.
As well as the aviary they have now a visitor information area, laboratory and an amazing hide built nearby. All they need are some wild vultures to feed at the restaurant. Maria had built restaurants elsewhere that have attracted hundreds of vultures at a time but for some reason they are loath to land and feed on the inviting offal on hand. She and her staff are trying to work out the problem.
On arrival, our first impressions were uncertain, but when shown over the setup, we were very impressed. The break here has come at a good time on our trip; not that we were tired of travelling, but to stop in a place for a week or two and hopefully achieve something is a good change. For me it’s good to get my hands dirty again although picking offal up with bare hands took some doing.
I will give an idea of our daily tasks in the next post.