01 Jun 1996 - Letter from Mpumalanga
Luthando Maphasa's Findings were echoed by Dr. Warwick Tarboton of Nylstroom who made the following observations in a letter to Prof. Tim Crowe in 1995
"The local extinction of guineafowl populations mirrors what I have found in the (former) Transvaal, and especially in the highveld region of Mpumalanga where guineafowl are patchily distributed, being abundant on some farms and absent on others.
My conclusion is that the patchy disappearance of guineafowl is the result of flocks being poisoned by farm workers for their own consumption and/or for sale, and that this socio-economic element may warrant consideration in your research program. I have had two different research experiences in which entire flocks of guineafowl were killed virtually overnight as a result of farm workers (in one case) and fencing contract labour (in another) putting out poisoned maize seed for birds. In both cases this happened in late summer/winter when birds were in flocks; in both cases the landowners were oblivious to what was going on, and in both cases all the guineafowl in the immediate area were eradicated. Poisons are used so widely on farms, they are so accessible to farm labour and they can be used so easily with little chance of detection. I believe that the practice described is widespread and guineafowl are particularly prone to local extinction in this way because of their winter flocking behaviour (whereas Swainson's Francolin remain dispersed and consequently less vulnerable). Unfortunately many farmers don't know, or don't believe it is happening on their farms.
You may recall that a few years ago several hundred vultures were poisoned in the Kruger National Park. In this analogous situation a group of farm workers on the adjoining citrus estates discovered that there was a lucrative market for vulture body parts in the muti market. For more than a year they remained undetected, routinely killing vultures in the park using commercial poison available on the citrus farm. If this could happen in a well-policed national park with a large conspicuous bird like a vulture, it can happen even more easily with guineafowl on farms. All that differs is the type of bait used."
Agred Kwazulu-Natal Newsletter, Autumn 1996 |
