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A vulture in a nest in Tanzania. Credit North Carolina Zoo.
In a remarkable comeback after enduring half a century of poaching, leopard and lion populations have begun rebounding in Africa’s third-largest national park, according to a new report from Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, and partners. Four years of rigorous counter-poaching operations employing game-changing conservation technologies, including the use of SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) and EarthRanger across Zambia’s Kafue National Park (KNP) have helped triple the leopard density in southern Kafue and increase and stabilize leopard and lion populations across the Park. Daily coordinated operations were fully led by Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), with support from Panthera, the North Carolina Zoo and multiple partners.
Patrols were enhanced by the pioneering use of vultures as early warning systems. In fixing satellite tags to 19 African vultures, scientists from the North Carolina Zoo and Panthera trialed how vultures can help identify illegal activities like poisoning, which threaten vultures and carnivores alike.