Where vultures ‘wine and dine’

Features Editor Sarah Tikiwaer
Sunday Mail November 23,2008

A BLACK box, covered with a red cloth is carried down the stairs into a nearby bush. A procession, made up mainly of guests, follows the man carrying the box.

The red cloth is removed as soon as the man reaches the open area at the bottom of the stairs.

The guests watch as pieces of raw and cooked left over meat is strewn all over the place.

"I have been doing this for a year now but each day brings with it a unique experience," said Tendekai Madzivanzira as he throws the last chunk of meat onto the floor.

He quickly steps aside and joins the onlookers. Suddenly, loud splatters of wings are heard as hundreds of vultures storm the area and pounce on the meat and the bones. A stench fills the atmosphere as the scavengers delve into their lunch.

"They are so ugly, they are so ugly," yells a young girl called Wendy from the crowd of onlookers, while others display different facial expressions, trying to come to terms with the whole unusual experience.

"This whole experience and the stench has just killed my appetite," says another guest who was standing close the scene.

"The birds were very hungry, the food did not last," said a guest standing nearby

Welcome to the "Vulture Restaurant" at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, where hundreds of vultures are treated to a meaty-lunch everyday.

For the past year, the hotel has been feeding the birds with left-over meat and trimmings from The Boma — Place of Eating, a popular evening restaurant for tourists visiting the Victoria Falls.

The Boma provides an extraordinary dining experience for most tourists and it is "a must do" for those visiting Victoria Falls for the first time. It is adjacent to the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and it specialises in a selection of Zimbabwean dishes served on cast iron plates. The Boma offers a four course meal combining a choice of starters with a barbecue buffet.

It is famous for its game dishes including warthog steaks, ostrich kebabs and kudu stews. The restaurant also has a variety of chicken, beef, pork and fish. A selection of hot vegetarian dishes plus an extensive salad selection are also available.

A feast of nightly entertainment includes Shangaan and Ndebele dancers and singers, a local n’anga (traditional healer) and sangoma (traditional storyteller). The acclaimed Zambezi Drumbeat provides a wonderful interactive drumming experience – encouraging all dinners to participate in the evening’s festivities.

Such is the evening at The Boma — Place of Eating. While this happens at night, the vultures wait for their treat during the day – feasting on similar leftovers and raw trimmings, hence the name "Vultures Restaurant".

The vultures really look forward to the daily treat. From 11 AM, the birds start arriving and wait patiently on trees surrounding the lodge.

"They start arriving early and wait on tree tops while watching our every move. The birds even follow my movements as I go to the kitchen to get the meat," said Tendekai who is the resident guide at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.

The idea of a "Vulture Restaurant" providing lunch for the birds everyday, sounded a bit far fetched when this writer heard about it while on tour to Victoria Falls. Together with photographer Lee Maidza, we set out to find out more. We witnessed the vultures’ table being prepared, followed by the partaking of the lunch, a process that took less than two minutes.

"Why do you feed vultures of all birds?" I inquired from the manager Jonathan Hudson.

"Vultures are the sanitation crew of the country, they clean up everything. The meat that we give to them is leftover from The Boma Restaurant, and also trimmings that are not fit for human consumption. We had two choices; either to dump the leftover food somewhere and create a health hazard or give it to the vultures and have the place cleaned up naturally. We chose the latter.

"The Vulture Restaurant concept has given us a unique opportunity to get close to these birds. It is not everyday that you get to see vultures on your doorstep. Because of the close interaction we have forged with the vultures, we can tell if the birds are increasing or decreasing — we are able to keep track of them. It is an educational experience. We have seen different kinds of vultures come on a daily basis — from those with colours to those that are bald. We get eagles as well sometimes," said Jonathan.

Vultures are scavenging birds, feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals. They are medium to large-sized birds found in every continent, except Antarctica and Oceania. They have weak feet with blunt talons and bare heads to prevent the feathers from becoming dirty while feeding. Their long, broad wings are efficient for long distance soaring. A group of vultures is called a venue. When circling in the air, a group of cultures is called a kettle.

They seldom attack a healthy living animal, but may kill the wounded or sick one. They gorge themselves when prey is abundant, till their crop forms a projection, and sit sleepy or half-torpid, to digest their food. They do not carry food to their young ones in their claws, but disgorge it from the crop. The vultures are a great value as scavengers, especially in hot regions.

According to Wikipedia, some human communities use the vultures to eat up the dead as a form of burial.

The Parsi community in some parts of India carries out what is called "sky burials". The human dead are put on the top of "Towers of Silence" where vultures eat and clean the bodies and leave only the bones.

Jonathan said the "Vulture restaurant" at his Lodge would be an on-going exercise.

"We are planning on introducing a ring system on the birds so that we can keep track of the population. We may have to use nets in order to put the rings around their feet so that we know what is happening to the vulture population."

I wondered where all that leftover food went after my Boma dinner. By the way, I saw on the Travel Channel the other night the bald headed gentleman that eats all kinds of exotic dishes from around the world, go out with a group in Ethiopia after dinner at some restaurant and do the same thing, only they fed the hyenas. One of the black guys would even put a piece of meat on a small stick, hang it from his mouth, and then let the hyenas come and take it. Then they would break the stick in half and do it again with another piece of meat to see how close they could come as they fed. They were also petting them and treating them like they were tame. What a bunch of fools. . .