Inqe had returned from Hluhluwe to his home in the Kruger National Park, but he could not rest.
There was a hungry chick squawking in the nest he and his partner had made. It was a fine construction of sticks lined with soft grasses atop a grand leadwood tree that had stood near the Sabie River for eight hundred years.
His kind had been in Africa for millennia, but they were disappearing. Each year more and more died, electrocuted by high-voltage powerlines and poisoned by farmers and poachers. It had taken nearly two months for their single chick to hatch, and by the time he fledged they would have been feeding him for four months.
His partner dropped a skerrick of rotten meat into the chick’s ever-hungry mouth. Their future and that of their offspring was anything but certain.
So he flew, again, this time to the north and the east across the border with Mozambique. Game was starting to cross back into the vast tracts of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which until a few years ago had been the preserve of hunters and poachers. That journey, however, was as risky for the land dwellers as it was for vultures.
Below him, in the dry bed of the Shingwedzi River, others had found a hearty meal, the carcass of a slain elephant. Inqe joined the flock and descended. The kill was fresh, and just one tusk had been removed from the old bull.
The sound of gunfire startled Inqe and the other birds, who rose in panic and temporarily sought refuge in the nearest trees. When the shooting stopped it was followed by the sound of vehicle engines.
Men arrived to inspect the dead elephant. It was a bittersweet moment, as battle often was. An elephant had been killed, but the arrival of the first of the vultures had alerted a national parks patrol to the presence of a kill. The rangers had investigated, disturbing the poachers before they could remove both tusks and poison the carcass. A chase had ensued.
In the back of the patrol’s Land Cruiser was the body of a poacher, and in the following vehicle were another two in handcuffs.
When the men departed, Inqe and his kind set about cleaning the elephant. When he was done, his belly full of food to be regurgitated for his hungry chick, Inqe took off, and headed for his nest.