On the southern side of the mountain, closely situated to the breeding cliffs is the village of Indermark.

Previously, grounded fledgling Cape Griffons were being killed by youths and sold to traditional doctors for "muthi".

Approximately 3 to 4 fledglings per breeding season had been brought to the reserve by game guards who had come upon them during patrols, but none had been handed over by the local people, thereby making it difficult for us to ascertain the number of birds that were being utilised in this manner.

An awareness campaign to highlight the importance of conserving this endangered species proved futile, as handing the birds over for rehabilitation would deprive these people of the income they were deriving from selling them to the traditional doctors.

With the support of the Vulture Study Group we decided to implement a "reward" system together with the awareness and information campaign which proved to be far more successful.

The "reward" is R50.00 (approx. 5 U.S. dollars) per bird that is midway between what the "muthi-doctors" would pay, their prices ranging between R20.00 and R70.00.

The local tribal authority agreed to co-operate with this programme and a pensioner and member of the local agricultural committee pledged his support and was supplied with a "holding cage" in which to house the fledglings until we could collect them.

During the first breeding season of the implementation of this strategy 44 Cape Griffon fledglings were handed over by the local community for rehabilitation. We realised then that the impact of the "muthi-trade" on this breeding population was far more severe than we initially suspected.

To date out of 300 vultures (including fledglings, poisoned and injured birds) which have been rehabilitated, 267 were brought in by people living in the area indicating a far greater awareness and co-operation on the part of the local community.


It is interesting to note that in spite of the fact that the "muthi-doctors" are no longer being supplied with vultures by the youths of the village there is no animosity on their part due to the fact that we work with them concerning their medicinal plants.

In fact, one particular "doctor" who was offered a vulture by a rebellious youth refused to purchase it and the bird was set free as she was not prepared to jeopardise her good relationship with us.

A further indication of this goodwill is that a weak vulture was caught and handed in to us for rehabilitation by the brother of village's most prominent "muthi-doctor".

During the filming of a programme for Ecovision on SABC television, children from a primary school were spontaneously interviewed and responded by saying:

"Once we used to kill the vultures, but now we have learnt that they are important and must be looked after".

The principal, who is also the chairman of the town committee, commented:

"Previously the people of our community saw the reserve and conservation as a matter of prosecution - being caught for doing something wrong - but now we see the vultures as something that we must preserve as they can be a tourist attraction for our village".

It appears that this community is now viewing these birds as an asset, something from which they can derive a benefit and are looking further than just the reward they receive.

Our long-term aim for this project is to encourage and assist the Indermark community in establishing a tourist enterprise making the Cape Griffon breeding colony its focal point.

Should we be able to effectively achieve this then the future of this breeding colony will be secure.