Raptor is on the brink of extinction – The Mail & Guardian

Raptor is on the brink of extinction – The Mail & Guardian

In late July, ornithologist Anthony van Zyl was among a team of researchers perched along the edges of the Batoka Gorge system, downstream of Victoria Falls. Their mission? To locate the cryptic Taita falcon, one of Africa’s rarest and most elusive raptors. With binoculars and telescopes trained on the cliffs the group, including eight teams from Zambia and five from Zimbabwe, scanned the horizon. But not one sighting of the cliff-nesting, bird-…