Vulture Restaurant
A Vulture Restaurant is an area of bush away from human habitation where carcasses and carrion are placed to attract and feed vultures in their natural manner. On the Ranch we selected such a site in early 2020, provided carrion and have been rewarded with a constant presence of the vultures.
These birds are fast loosing their opportunities to eat elsewhere as the numbers of wild animals in Africa continues to plummet as do the number of their predators. Traditionally the abundant game on the Kafue, Lockinvar and Blue Lagoon game reserves supported a healthy number of vultures of differing species each of which had a different role in the eating and disposing of carrion. A signature sight of the Africa bush is a cyclone of vultures descending to clean up some predator’s messy kill; a threatened activity worth saving.
While keeping the birds sustained is the first aim of our Restaurant, the major goal is to attract them to a habitat where they can breed safely and sustainably away from human habitation in which presently they are being harassed and disturbed. The vultures found in our area do not rely upon cliffs as their prime habitat but need to nest and roost in tall trees, which are being felled at an alarming speed in the Province. The Ranch has a substantial area of bush comprising large climax trees and open savannah, which is the natural habitat of our endemic vultures and where increasingly the human interference is being reduced.