NAIROBI, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- An often overlooked battle is unfolding on the sun-kissed plains of the Masai Mara National Reserve, one of Kenya's largest game parks in the southwestern Kenyan county of Narok.
It is one fought quietly by some of nature's most misunderstood creatures -- vultures.
According to BirdLife International, a conservation lobby, seven out of eleven African vultures face extinction, and in the last five decades, their population has declined by 92 percent.
To halt this decline, communities around Maasai Mara have taken matters into their own hands.
During a recent interview with Xinhua, John Sirona, a member of a local vulture guardians' group, said the initiative is slowly but steadily gaining traction. "As communities continue to understand the importance of vultures in nature's ecosystem, we have seen more and more people, especially the youth, develop an interest in protecting vultures," Sironka said.
Growing up in the Mara ecosystems that straddle the Kenya-Tanzania border, Sironka witnessed widespread conflicts between humans and wildlife, leading to a negative attitude towards wild animals.
The local community, Sironka said, had various methods of addressing these conflicts, including snaring, spearing, and even poisoning wildlife. Known more for their menacing appearance and association with death, vultures were always an easy target, according to Sironka.
His interest in vultures began five years ago when Nature Kenya, a nonprofit organization, launched a vulture conservation program in the southwestern Kenyan county of Kajiado, which is home to some of the country's well-known iconic wildlife species.
Upon realizing that vultures were declining due to the ongoing human-wildlife conflict, he felt the need to inform his community that vultures are crucial to pastoralists as they help locate lost livestock in the grazing fields.
Through Nature Kenya's awareness activities, Sironka also came to understand that vultures play a vital role in cleaning the environment by feeding on carcasses and, above all, signifying a healthy ecosystem.
The partnership between local conservationists and community vulture champions like Sironka brings hope in combating wildlife poisoning that has decimated vulture populations across the region.
John Kamanga, also a vulture protection champion in Masai Mara, said these creatures are instrumental in controlling diseases like anthrax and rabies as they dispose of animal carcasses quickly before harmful pathogens sprawl.
"Vultures are far from lovable to most people: their bald heads and sharp beaks circling over a carcass don't exactly invoke any feelings of admiration," Kamanga said.
He insisted that without vultures, the spread of disease would be much worse, impacting both wildlife and human communities, as the large birds play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem by acting as nature's cleanup crew.
Kamanga stressed that poisoning, primarily by farmers seeking to protect their livestock from predators like lions and hyenas, remains the most significant threat to the vulture population.
"When a lion kills livestock, angry farmers typically poison the carcass to kill the predator. Unsuspecting victims are often vultures, which feast on the poisoned remains and die in droves," Kamanga said.
In response to this growing crisis, local communities in partnership with organizations such as Nature Kenya, have appointed vulture scouts, who are local people trained to act efficiently when a poisoning incident occurs.
"To prevent poisoning, we offer farmers and herders alternative solutions to protect their livestock," said Mary Wambui, a vulture scout in Narok County.
Vulture scouts, according to Wambui, are specially trained to handle such sensitive situations and once a poisoning is reported, they quickly arrive on-site equipped with protective gear and antidotes for the poisoned birds.
In many cases, swift action determines the difference between life and death for an entire colony of vultures.
"Every minute counts in these situations. We have saved dozens of vultures in this manner, but the battle is far from over. We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do on the ground," Wambui said.
According to Kamanga, though the initiative is far from reaching its goal, the progress is commendable, adding that if a farmer hears someone he knows and respects explaining the importance of protecting vultures, the farmer is more likely to listen.
Regional campaigns that extend beyond Kenya's borders into Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia also support such initiatives as conservation organizations work together to raise awareness about the plight of vultures and train more local scouts.
Fadzai Matsvimbo, the Preventing Extinctions Program coordinator for Africa at BirdLife International, said by addressing this issue on a much wider scale, there is hope that across East Africa, vultures will have more of a fighting chance at survival.
"The community-owned process is slowly starting to yield fruits. The vulture champions and scouts have helped in reducing poisoning incidents in certain areas," Matsvimbo said.
While there is still a long way to go, Wambui, the vulture scout in Narok County, said they are seeing more farmers choosing non-lethal methods to protect their livestock, even as more people are becoming aware of the crucial role vultures play in maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Progress has been made, but the outlook on the future of vultures remains cloudy. With seven of Africa's vulture species considered critically endangered, the clock is ticking.
Conservationists believe much more needs to be done both at the community and policy level to save these birds from extinction.
Kamanga said there needs to be stricter laws against poisoning and support for farmers who are trying to protect their livestock in "vulture-friendly ways."
Kamanga and his fellow conservationists are also pushing for schools within the Maasai Mara ecosystem to incorporate vulture conservation into their curricular activities as a way of encouraging the next generation to take up the mantle. ■