ハゲワシさんたちの大量死

　南アで、なにやらバッファローを啄んだハゲワシさんたちが大量死。どうも毒を塗られていたもののようで、捜査が始まる。

BBC More than 100 vultures die in suspected SA poisoning 12 Aug 202

　これだけ一気に死んでは、それこそ種の存続まで危ぶまれる。

「More than 100 vultures and a hyena have died at South Africa’s Kruger National Park after feeding on a buffalo carcass suspected to have been poisoned, the authorities are quoted as saying.

“Rangers on patrol discovered the carcass of a buffalo, which appeared to have been laced with poison. They also found over 100 dead vultures and a dead hyena likely to have fed off the carcass,” local media cite South African National Parks Authority (SanParks) as saying.」

「Yolan Friedman, the chief executive of Endangered Wildlife Trust, told local media that poisonings at this scale put the species at increasing risk of extinction.

Vultures often die from eating poisoned carcasses used to bait predators but are sometimes deliberately poisoned for their body parts used in traditional medicine.」

　肉食獣を退治するための毒塗り―と言う可能性もあるにせよ。どうも魔術に使用するためにもハゲワシさんは有用なようで…。