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A journey of conservation

Peter Bridgeford tagging a lappet-faced vulture against the background of the Namib dunes.

Way back, during the 1990s, there was no lappet-faced vulture chick in any camel thorn tree in the Namib too high for Peter Bridgeford to reach.

While he was busy with the construction of the Namib-Naukluft Hiking Trail, even the steep-sided valley up to Bakenkop, which seemed impossible to scale, did not deter Bridgeford from finding a way.

Later, when I hiked up the very same kloof with the help of chains that had been fitted, I could not quite figure out how we managed to do it.

Bridgeford started his career in nature conservation in what was then known as South West Africa, when he was appointed as a tourist officer at Okaukuejo in the Etosha National Park in 1976. After just three months, he was transferred to Swakopmund, followed by postings to Henties Bay, Ugabmond and Möwe Bay.

In 1982, he was transferred to the Namib-Naukluft Park and rose through the ranks to senior warden in charge of the park’s southern section.

Bridgeford was the driving force behind the construction of the Naukluft Hiking Trail, which was officially opened on 3 June 1989, as well as the now-defunct Naukluft 4×4 Trail.

Upon retiring from the environment and tourism ministry in 1999, he worked at the NamibRand Nature Reserve for five years before settling down at Walvis Bay.

A lappet-faced vulture safely back in its nest after it has been tagged, weighed and measured.

A PASSION FOR VULTURES

Way back in the 1980s, when Bridgeford was stationed at the Skeleton Coast, he and his wife Marilyn, began recording the breeding attempts of lappet-faced vultures in the park. Their early interactions with these majestic, but much-maligned birds, proved to be infectious, and the couple ringed their first chicks in the Sossusvlei area of the Namib Naukluft Park in 1986.

Boundless enthusiasm soon turned into a lifelong passion. With the help of fellow conservationists, friends and supporters, the ringing project became an annual event each October, when the chicks are large enough to be ringed but still too small to fly. Patagial tags replaced the early system, comprising a numbered metal ring and a unique combination of coloured rings that were attached to the chicks’ legs, in 2006.

Bridgeford was instrumental in establishing the Namibian section of the Vulture Study Group, a working group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, in 1997. The group, which was renamed Vultures Namibia to reflect its local identity in 2005, is coordinated by Bridgeford.

Having worked with the lappet-faced vultures of the Namib for over three decades, Bridgeford is without doubt Namibia’s foremost expert on the large birds.

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