Every now and then one hears of someone doing something really special. Not often that such a person turns out to be a birders hero! Sonja Krüger, EKZNW regional ecologist for the Drakensberg area, was recently awarded the prestigious Sasol Vulture Conservationist of the Year award for 2007 by the Endangered Wildlife Trust Birds of Prey Working Group at a function in the Kruger National Park. This award is in recognition of her contributions to the conservation of threatened bearded vultures in southern Africa. In the early 2000s she raised the alarm that there might be a problem with Bearded Vultures in southern Africa. She spent the following three years collecting more data, including organizing the first ground-based surveys of the KZN Drakensberg since the early 1980s and the helicopter count in the mid 1990s...

Her data led her to believe that her initial suspicions were true and again she raised the alarm. Sonja’s efforts convinced several conservation NGOs to provide funding for more intensive monitoring and it was finally possible to demonstrate unequivocally that the population was significantly smaller than in the 1980s and declining.

On the basis of the results of the surveys and subsequent analysis of conservation requirements, significant funds for additional surveys and for the establishment of three freezer rooms to provide safe carcasses in strategic areas requiring additional safe food were obtained.

The award also recognises Sonja for her collaboration with ornithologists in Spain, Switzerland and France, recently resulting in the donation of satellite transmitters that were fitted to three Bearded Vultures. Her efforts at raising the profile of the species, both amongst staff of conservation agencies and amongst the public and her arrangement of volunteers to assist with monitoring are commended. She has also set up, trained and managed ‘Nest Site Champions’, leading to some important discoveries – most notably in the last season of a nest site in the eastern Free State where Bearded Vultures were thought to have disappeared.

Although many more nest sites are now known and much more about their foraging range.as result of Sonja’s work, EKZNW Ecological Advice Coordinator Ian Rushworth says: “There is no evidence yet of change in fortunes for this declining species, but (in terms of the project) we know where we are and know where we want to get to and by when.”

“Sonja has sacrificed many hours of her personal time as well as spending a lot of time in the Drakensberg Mountains under trying conditions, or in aircraft flying perilously close to cliff faces, to help conserve this endangered species.  The Bearded Vulture has a champion and is in good hands,” said Rushworth.

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