In one of the deadliest wildlife poisoning incidents in Southern Africa in recent years, more than 120 endangered vultures have been found dead after feeding on a poisoned elephant carcass in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, officials confirmed Thursday.

According to a joint statement by Kruger National Park and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), 123 vultures—comprising critically endangered white-backed vultures, Cape vultures, and a lappet-faced vulture—were discovered lifeless at the site. The poisoning, believed to have been carried out by poachers using a highly toxic agrochemical pesticide, marks the worst vulture poisoning event in the park since 2019.

“This scale of the tragedy is staggering,” the statement said, revealing that an additional 84 vultures were rescued from the area by road and helicopter for emergency treatment and monitoring.

Wildlife experts suspect the elephant was deliberately laced with poison to kill scavengers like vultures and lions, whose body parts are trafficked for use in traditional medicine markets.

Gareth Tate, manager of EWT’s birds of prey programme, told AFP that poachers increasingly use poisoning tactics, which indiscriminately decimate endangered species and compromise entire ecosystems.

“We’ve seen a massive spike in poaching for lion parts, and vultures are often unintended—or sometimes intentional—casualties,” Tate said. “In many cases, vultures are targeted because their presence in the sky can alert rangers to a poaching scene.”

This incident follows a 2019 mass poisoning in Botswana where over 500 vultures died under similar circumstances.

Wildlife advocates warn that targeted poisonings are devastating to species already on the brink of extinction and are urging for stricter enforcement, cross-border cooperation, and rapid response units to combat wildlife crimes involving toxic substances.

The use of agrochemicals in poaching has drawn growing international concern, with conservationists calling for tighter controls on access to toxic pesticides and harsher penalties for wildlife poisoning.