African Wildlife Poisoning Database

The use of poisons to kill wildlife has a long-established place in African history. However, the rapid acceleration in this use, coupled with the move to synthetic pesticides, has been shown to have a devastating effect on populations of many species.

Poisoning is often targeted at particular species, particularly those that provide high-value by-products, but the consequences are frequently unintentional and affect any species scavenging on poisoned carcasses. This may have potentially catastrophic human health impacts, in addition to the impacts on wildlife. There is evidence that a number of different species and ecosystems are being systematically targeted.

The Vulture Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission aims to gather and collate data on historical and current incidents of wildlife poisoning to assess the scope and impact of this threat to vultures and other scavenging birds and wildlife on the African continent. This database is designed to facilitate simple, effective loading and capture of relevant data using a webform, or a data submission template, for this purpose while ensuring that sensitive data submitted will not be shared without the consent of the submitting partner/organisation.

SUBMIT DATA

If you would like to submit individual records to the database click here.

If you would like to contribute a number of records to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, please download the data submission template and submit the file to wildlifepoisoning@ewt.org.za.

If you provide your contact information, you will retain ownership of your own records, but the African Wildlife Poisoning Database may share details of poisoning events, other than your personal details, with third parties if data is requested for scientific or conservation purposes. 

If you do not wish any data for a particular record to be shared externally, please indicate this when entering your records, in the EMBARGO/ DATA SHARING section.

REQUEST DATA

A map of the poisoning incidents in the database for the continent can be downloaded here. 

A dashboard of summary data from the database can be accessed here. More complete raw data can be requested for research or conservation purposes. If you would like to request data, please download the user agreement form.

Please note that parts of the data may be considered sensitive and will not be shared. Also, note that absence of records does not imply absence of poisonings, merely that no records are held in the AWPD.