Unraveling the real magnitude of illegal wildlife poisoning to halt cryptic biodiversity loss

Impact of artificial waterholes on temporal partitioning in a carnivore guild: a comparison of activity patterns at artificial waterholes to roads and trails

“…Poisoning of waterholes for a target species, like African elephants ( Loxodonta africana ) by ivory poachers, can have cascading effects on all wildlife that use the waterhole ( Mzumara, Perrin & Downs, 2016 ; Ogada, Botha & Shaw, 2016 ). The decline of African vulture species is well documented to be connected to active poisoning ( Ogada, Botha & Shaw, 2016 ), but large carnivores who frequent artificial waterholes are also at risk although this is poorly documented in Africa ( Olea et al, 2022 ). African wild dogs being one of the most endangered carnivores in Africa is of particular concern in this regard, because although they can travel great distances quickly and have been found not to be particularly associated with water source in Hwange National Park ( Ndaimani et al, 2016 ), they do visit the artificial water holes relatively frequently as seen in this study.…”

Vulture poisoning in Sub-Saharan Africa and its implications for conservation planning: A systematic review

“…Vulture killings through poisoning are under-reported by conservation stakeholders [ 9 ], partly because of limited surveillances by law enforcement agencies due to low investment levels in biodiversity conservation [ 36 , 37 ]. The other reasons for under-reporting include the secretive nature of illicit activities regarding vultures [ 35 , 38 , 39 ], absence of stringent laws [ 12 ], and stakeholder resistance to cooperate in conservation programs [ 40 ]. The poisons are cheap, easy to acquire and use, and can kill the victims silently, non-selectively and in large numbers [ 3 , 9 ].…”

“…Much of wildlife poisoning incidences are undetected by the authorities, signaling huge magnitude of this wildlife crime in the ecosystems [ 39 ], and occur in area-specific locations, particularly those areas with high human-wildlife interactions [ 38 ]. Therefore, the actual numbers and proportion of the vulture populations attributed to poison mortalities in SSA is unknown [ 41 ], compromising stakeholder awareness of the magnitude of the challenge regarding vulture conservation strategies.…”