Comic Summary
The second (2025) edition of Vusa the Vulture Guardian is dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of endangered vultures in Africa. This comic book is designed for children living in communities where vultures are found, to teach them about the birds’ vital ecological role and the serious threats they face.
Overview of Content
The educational comic book is structured around the adventures of Vusa, his sister Thandi, and his best friend Siya who live in a rural village bordering the fictitious Lenong Lodge and game reserve somewhere in southern Africa.
The main topics covered include:
- Vultures’ Ecological Role: Vultures are described as “Nature’s Unsung Heroes” and “Super Scavengers” because they act as the environment’s clean-up crew. By eating decaying animals (carrion), they prevent the spread of diseases like rabies and TB to animals, livestock, and people. Their strong stomach acids kill harmful bacteria, keeping the environment healthy and saving communities money on treating sick animals and disposing of carcasses.
- Threats and Dangers: The comic details the major dangers African vultures face, which have led to dramatic population declines, with some species facing up to 95% reductions.
- Poisoning and Traditional Medicine Trade: Together, poisoning and the trade in traditional medicine account for 90% of reported vulture deaths in Africa. Poisoning can be primary (poachers intentionally kill vultures to hide their activities) or secondary (people poison an animal carcass to kill predators, and vultures become unintended victims).
- Habitat Loss and Collision: Other threats include the loss of breeding habitats due to deforestation, human expansion, and collisions with infrastructure like electricity pylons, wind turbines, and busy highways.
- Lead Poisoning: Vultures can also suffer from lead poisoning after eating animal flesh that contains tiny bits of lead from bullets used by hunters.
- Vulture Conservation and Rescue: The story introduces a veterinary student named Amani, who works with conservation organizations like Lenong Lodge. These groups rescue and rehabilitate sick and injured birds and educate the public. The comic provides guidelines for safely reporting an injured vulture, emphasizing keeping distance, securing the area, taking photos, and noting the location before contacting a Vulture Rescue Team. It also includes extensive contact information for Vulture Rescue NPOs (Not for Profit Organisations) across numerous African countries.
- African Vulture Species Comparison: The comic book provides details on eight African vulture species, including their status on the IUCN Red List, wingspan, weight, and lifespan.
- Educational Activities: The comic includes five fun interactive pages to test and reinforce the readers understanding of the content.
- Glossary: A comprehensive list of difficult words and their definitions is included to assist teachers and pupils whose home language is invariably not English.
Call to Action
The comic strongly encourages readers to become “Vulture Guardians”. Recommended actions include:
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- Education: Sharing knowledge about vultures’ importance and ecological role.
- Advocacy: Telling parents to help stop the sale of poisonous chemicals and lobby the government for laws to regulate and trace agricultural poisons.
- Reporting: Reporting poaching and poisoned carcasses to police or local National Park authorities.
- Habitat Protection: Cleaning up litter, looking after rivers, and planting indigenous trees.
- International Vulture Awareness Day: Publishing school projects about vultures on the first Saturday in September for International Vulture Awareness Day.
“Vultures in Botswana face severe threats from poisoning, poaching, and habitat loss. Intentional and unintentional poisoning, particularly through laced carcasses aimed at large predators, has led to mass vulture deaths. The decline of vultures is a significant conservation concern, as their disappearance increases disease risks and disrupts ecosystems, yet many rural children are unaware of their vital role. This (vulture comic) initiative aligns with both our missions to foster conservation awareness and empower local communities with knowledge about their natural heritage. We believe that by reaching children, we can inspire a new generation of conservationists who will champion the protection of Botswana’s biodiversity.”
“Many individuals did not know about vultures and their value in the ecosystem. So the comic created a great opportunity to discuss this without being confrontational, a soft entry into a sensitive topic involving the illegal activities around a critically endangered species. This has allowed very open discussions, working together with individuals from rural communities who exist with wildlife to come up with solutions that can be adopted more easily.”
“The 2025 Vulture comic looks great and it will undoubtedly be another winner amongst our learners. I especially loved the ‘Know Your Vultures’ section on page 19. We have been in the schools this week (September 2025) furthering the distribution of the Vusa comics. David Quinn, our visiting zoo keeper from the US, happily helped distribute them. The students of Khumaga were very excited.”