CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Vultures have an image problem. Seen as ugly and associated with death, they are among the least loved animals in the world. But conservationists in Africa are trying to change that.
They've launched an effort to save endangered vultures by trying to put a dollar figure on their incredible value.
A recent report by the BirdLife International conservation organization estimated that vultures are worth $1.8 billion a year to certain ecosystems in southern Africa, which might surprise anyone not familiar with the clean-up, pest control and anti-poaching work performed by one of the most efficient scavengers on the planet.
“They are not up there on the pretty scale. And they are not popular. But we know they are very useful,” said Fadzai Matsvimbo, an extinction prevention coordinator at BirdLife International.
The report comes at an important time for Africa's vultures; six of the 11 species found on the continent are listed as endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which says vultures are highly threatened in many parts of the world. In Africa, some species have declined by nearly 90%, Matsvimbo said.
Conservationists hope the report will make authorities and the public more aware of the positive impact of vultures.
It focused on research in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe and shows how a wake of vultures — the term for a group of feeding vultures — can strip a decomposing carcass in hours, cleaning up ecosystems, reducing the chance of disease spreading and the presence of pests like rats and feral dogs, which has great benefits to communities.
Vultures also have extremely strong stomach acid, don't get food poisoning and are able to consume and neutralize anthrax, botulism and other bacteria and toxins in carcasses that would kill other animals, removing deadly threats from the environment. Just this week, more than 50 hippos died from suspected anthrax poisoning in a reserve in Congo.
Vultures are nature’s “best sanitation services,” said Matsvimbo. Conservationists have raised the case of the drastic loss of vultures in India over the last 30 years and how that led to a health crisis. A study published last year said half a million people died in India because of the spread of bacteria and infections in the absence of vultures.
Matsvimbo said vultures in Africa are also used as “sentinels” by game rangers because they are often the first to spot a dead animal and can lead rangers to where poachers might be active. They have even proven useful in helping farmers locate dead or injured livestock.
Vultures are unique among land vertebrates in that they only feed on carrion — dead animals. That makes them especially susceptible to poisoning by humans, either intentionally by poachers and others who want to get rid of them, or by mistake when pests are the target. Hundreds of vultures can die from a single poisoned carcass.
Vultures are also regularly killed or maimed in collisions with powerlines in Africa. And they are increasingly being killed for belief-based reasons, said Kerri Wolter, the CEO of the Vulpro vulture rehabilitation center in South Africa, which treats sick and injured vultures to be released back into the wild.
She said because vultures have such outstanding eyesight and instincts when it comes to finding a dead animal they are viewed by some as being clairvoyant and able to foresee death. Their body parts, and especially their head, are used in potions or as charms to predict the future.
“Our work is to change the mindsets of people,” Wolter said. “For them to see vultures and think, wow that is amazing.”
Matsvimbo and Wolter both said vultures have been given a raw deal by moviemakers in Hollywood, where they are almost always shown as evil and sinister. Movies have done for vultures what “Jaws” did for sharks, Wolter said.
“I love watching ‘The Lion King,’ but every time they do the vulture part, my heart breaks," said Matsvimbo. “Vultures are never portrayed in a positive way. I have a bone to chew with these moviemakers. Or should that be bone to pick?”
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - A Cape vulture hovers over a "vulture restaurant" at the Vulture Programme at Boekenhoutkloof near Hartbeespoort Dam, South Africa on Nov. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)
FILE - A Cape vulture is seen in its enclosure at the Vulture Programme at Boekenhoutkloof near Hartbeespoort Dam, South Africa on Sept. 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — In the crucial, chaotic minutes after a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, began firing inside an elementary school, a police officer now accused of failing to protect the children stood by without making a move to stop the carnage, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
School officer Adrian Gonzales arrived at the scene of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history while the teenage assailant was still outside the building. But he did not try to distract or engage him, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements of a criminal trial.
The officer only went inside Robb Elementary “after the damage had been done,” Turner said.
Defense attorneys disputed the accusations that Gonzales — one of two officers charged in the aftermath of the 2022 attack — did nothing, saying he radioed for more help and evacuated children as other police arrived.
“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” said defense attorney Nico LaHood. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
Prosecutors focused sharply on Gonzales’ steps in the minutes after the shooting began and as the first officers arrived. They did not address the hundreds of other local, state and federal officers who arrived and waited more than an hour to confront the gunman, who was eventually killed by a tactical team of officers.
Gonzales, who is no longer a Uvalde schools officer, has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if convicted.
It’s rare for an officer to be criminally charged with not doing more to save lives.
“He could have stopped him, but he didn’t want to be the target,” said Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, who was among the 19 students and two teachers who were killed.
Duran, who showed up early at the courthouse to watch the beginning of the trial, said authorities stood by while her sister “died protecting children.”
Defense attorneys described an officer who tried to assess where the gunman was while thinking he was being fired on without protection against a high-powered rifle.
Gonzales was among the first group to go into the building before they took fire from Salvador Ramos, the officer’s attorneys said.
“This isn’t a man waiting around. This isn’t a man failing to act,” defense attorney Jason Goss said.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.
Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training, the special prosecutor said.
“When a child calls 911, we have a right to expect a response,” Turner said, his voice trembling with emotion.
As Gonzales waited outside, children and teachers hid inside darkened classrooms and grabbed scissors “to confront a gunman,” Turner said. “They did as they had been trained.”
The trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, is sure to be traumatic for the victims’ families. Some are expected to testify, along with law enforcement agents, emergency dispatchers and school employees.
As testimony began, tissue boxes were brought to the families. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first 911 calls, but as they heard the voices become more frantic, the cries in the courtroom were inescapable.
The trial was moved to Corpus Christi after Gonzales’ attorneys argued he could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.
Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway.
An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until they breached the classroom and killed Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the shooting.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
The officer’s attorneys told jurors that there was plenty of blame to go around — from the lack of security at the school to police policy — and that prosecutors will try to play on their emotions by showing photos from the scene.
“What the prosecution wants you to do is get mad at Adrian. They are going to try to play on your emotions,” Goss said.
“The monster who hurt these children is dead,” he said. “He did not get this justice.”
Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018. A sheriff’s deputy was acquitted by a jury after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Ingram in Corpus Christi, Texas; Juan A. Lozano in Houston; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales looks back while seated in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, right, talks with an officer as he arrives in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Family member Jesse Rizo, center, talks to the media before the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales arrives in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
A man enters the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - Crosses with the names of shooting victims are placed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
People enter the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A line forms at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - This booking image provided by the Uvalde County, Texas, Sheriff's Office shows Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. (Uvalde County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
FILE - Flowers are placed around a welcome sign outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, to honor the victims killed in a shooting at the school. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
