Fine Art Wildlife Photography Print by multi-award winning photographer Sam Turley - Zebra
Location: Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservancy, Zimbabwe.
Description: Red-Billed Oxpecker numbers have unfortunately plummeted due to the use of toxic tick dips used in animal agriculture. These dips are great for controlling tick numbers in livestock however not so great for conservation. The Oxpeckers feed on these now toxic ticks and eventually die.
Oxpeckers are so vital to a healthy ecosystem and act as a natural tick control. At Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservancy, we have been educating the local farmers on which Oxpecker friendly tick dips they can use and the benefits of doing so. We had some great responses and so I wrote a proposal to BirdLife Zimbabwe to try to organise a translocation of Red-Billed Oxpeckers into the area. All was on track until this little guy showed up. I could not believe my eyes.
Absent from this area for so many years they seemed to be returning on their own accord! For now, there is only this individual bird, but we are hoping that as the conditions improve so will their numbers.
Build it and they will come.