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MARAKELE PARK 3/26/10 10:16 AM Page 6

C M Y CM MY CY CMY K

Isn’t this fun? Seeing allthe exciting birds here inMarakele National Park?

No, this is boring.We should have gone tothe snake park instead.

Why couldn’t Milocome along?

You know dogs are notallowed in

national parks …Shh!

Look here ...

No, that’s aCape Vulture.

Wow, that’s a bigbird. Is it an

eagle?

You mean those birdsthat feed off dead

bodies? Gross!

There’snothing gross

aboutvultures, son.

Rememberthe ‘circle of

life’ talkwe had?

Yes, yes … Well, thenyou’ll

rememberthat all

animals areimportant,

evenvultures, forthe circle oflife. And they

are veryinterestingcreatures.

Eish. That’s quiteslow. No wonder

they wait for theirfood to die first.

Did you know that they can fly at50km an hour? And that they can

live for up to 25 years?

There are morethan 800breeding

colonies righthere in MarakeleNational Park.

That’s one of thebiggest breedingcolonies in thewhole world.

Uh … mom? I thinkwe’d better go.

Those vultures mightmistake us for a snack.

MELUSI AND MILOMarakele's Cape VulturesMelusi and his dog Milo (SANParksunofficial envoys of conservation andbiodiversity) are always keen to teachabout the importance of nature.

Here Melusi visits Marakele andlearns a valuable lesson about one ofits main attractions - the vultures.

Carto

on

Strip

Car

toon

Strip