The Muti Trade in Africa: How Wildlife Crime Is Silencing Vultures, Wild Dogs and Monkeys

Jake-Lee Coetzee

15 hours ago

7 min read

Updated: 6 hours ago

The Silent Shadow Over the African Bush

Some stories arrive with a roar. This one arrives in silence.

It is the silence of a sky that no longer holds circling vultures. The silence of a riverbed where a wild dog pack once called to each other at dusk. The silence of a forest canopy where colobus monkeys once leapt from branch to branch.

Behind that silence sits one of the most secretive and damaging industries on the continent: the illegal wildlife trade, and the part of it that feeds on the demand for muti.

At Adventure Lifestyle Magazine, we make travel dreams come true and find the extraordinary in the mundane. But we also have a responsibility to tell the harder stories, because the extraordinary is exactly what is being taken from us. This is that story.

What Is Muti, and Why Does It Matter?

Muti (also spelled muthi) is the Zulu word for medicine. Traditional medicine is a deeply rooted part of the culture and heritage of many communities across Southern Africa, and traditional healers are respected members of society. Most practitioners work with plants, roots and herbs.

This article is not an attack on African culture or tradition.

The problem is the part of the trade that uses the body parts of threatened wildlife. That portion of the trade has grown into a commercial black market, where animals are poisoned, trapped, snared and killed in numbers that wild populations cannot survive. Researchers working with traditional healers have found that most healers themselves oppose the use of endangered species. When a trade moves from tradition to profit, nature loses.

The Animals in the Frame: Who Is Being Targeted?

The images in this story show three of the animals caught in this crisis, and the reality of what the trade leaves behind.

Vultures: The Clean-Up Crew Under Attack

Vultures are among the most heavily hit by the muti trade in Southern Africa, and the numbers are devastating. South Africa has seven resident vulture species. Three of them, the white-headed, hooded and white-backed vultures, are listed globally as critically endangered, the highest category of threat before extinction in the wild.

Some of the incidents on record are staggering:

In August 2022, around 100 vultures were found dead in the Kruger National Park, and more than 50 white-backed vultures died in Botswana's Chobe district around the same time. In both cases the birds had fed from a buffalo carcass that appeared to have been laced with poison, and conservationists reported that some carcasses had been harvested for body parts. Read the Al Jazeera report.
In KwaZulu-Natal, mass poisonings have repeatedly wiped out dozens of birds at a time. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife scientist Brent Coverdale has described poisoning for the traditional medicine trade as one of the major threats facing South Africa's vultures. Read the Daily Maverick report.
Researchers working with traditional health practitioners in the north-east of South Africa estimated that between 400 and 800 vultures are killed there every year for muti. Read the Daily Maverick investigation.

In some beliefs, vulture heads are thought to bring clairvoyance or good luck. That belief is now costing the species its future.

Here is the part that should worry every traveller and every lodge owner: poison does not discriminate. A poisoned carcass can kill dozens of vultures in a single feeding, along with hyenas, jackals and other scavengers that share the meal. One poisoning can empty a whole region of its birds.

Vultures are nature's sanitation service. They clear carcasses quickly, slow the spread of disease and keep ecosystems healthy. Without them, the bush changes, and it does not change for the better. Organisations such as Vulpro play a vital role in protecting Africa's vultures through the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and compromised birds, specialised captive breeding for conservation purposes, scientific research, population monitoring, education and advocacy. Vulpro also works to address major threats to vulture survival, including poisoning, power line electrocutions and collisions, through direct conservation interventions and collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

Critically endangered white-backed vulture portrait, vulture conservation in Africa, photograph by Jake-Lee Coetzee

A vulture, one of Africa's most threatened birds. Photo: Jake-Lee Coetzee

African Wild Dogs: The Painted Wolves

The African wild dog, also called the painted wolf, is one of the most endangered carnivores on the continent. The species is listed as endangered, with only a few thousand left in the wild.

Wild dogs are loved by safari guides and photographers for a reason. They are fiercely social, highly intelligent and among the most successful hunters in Africa. A sighting is something guests remember for the rest of their lives.

The main pressures on wild dogs are snares, habitat loss, conflict with people and disease. Alongside those, conservationists warn that illegal wildlife trade networks put pressure on a species that cannot afford to lose a single pack member. For an animal that depends on a tight family unit to hunt and raise pups, losing even a few individuals can unravel an entire pack.

An African wild dog, or painted wolf. Photo: Jake-Lee Coetzee

Colobus Monkeys: Victims of the Bushmeat and Body-Part Trade

The remaining images show something many travellers never see: smoked and dried monkey remains laid out for sale, prepared the way animals are for the bushmeat and traditional medicine markets.

Colobus monkeys, with their striking black and white coats, are hunted for meat, skins and body parts across parts of Central and West Africa. Several colobus species are classified as threatened, and the combination of hunting and forest loss is pushing them toward the edge.

DISTURBING CONTENT. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED.

The photographs below show what the muti and illegal wildlife trade really looks like, including smoked and dried animal remains prepared for sale. They are distressing, but they are the reality behind this story, and looking away is exactly what the trade depends on.

Smoked and dried animal remains laid out for sale, evidence of the muti and bushmeat trade in Africa, photograph 1 of 3 by Jake-Lee Coetzee

Smoked and dried animal remains laid out for sale, evidence of the muti and bushmeat trade in Africa, photograph 2 of 3 by Jake-Lee Coetzee

Smoked and dried animal remains laid out for sale, evidence of the muti and bushmeat trade in Africa, photograph 3 of 3 by Jake-Lee Coetzee

Muti trade photographs: Adventure Lifestyle Magazine investigation.

The Pangolin Connection

No conversation about the muti trade and wildlife crime is complete without the pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on earth. Pangolins are shy, nocturnal, scaled creatures that curl into a ball when threatened. It is a brilliant defence against a lion, and a fatal one against a poacher, who can simply pick them up.

We have already investigated their story in depth. Read our full investigation: [The Pangolin Crisis: Silent Scales of Extinction](https://www.adventurelifestylemagazine.com/post/the-pangolin-crisis-silent-scales-of-extinction).

Pangolins, vultures, wild dogs and monkeys may look nothing alike, but they share the same enemy: a hidden network that turns living animals into products.

Who Is Really Behind the Illegal Wildlife Trade?

It is easy to picture the muti trade as a single healer with a few vulture heads. The reality is often very different.

Conservation investigators describe a chain: the people who kill the animals, who are often poor and paid very little; the middlemen who collect and transport the parts; and the sellers at the end of the chain. Further up, organised criminal networks are involved in the wider illegal wildlife trade, moving parts across borders and disguising them as ordinary goods.

The people at the bottom of the chain are rarely the ones getting rich. The animals always pay the highest price.

How the Black Market Hurts African Tourism

Here is the angle that does not always make it into the conservation headlines, but it should. Wildlife is the foundation of African tourism.

Travellers do not come to Africa for a generic holiday. They come for the sunrise game drive, the leopard on a branch, the vulture thermals over a gorge and the wild dog pack at a waterhole. When these animals disappear, the reason to visit goes with them. Consider who depends on that chain:

Rangers and anti-poaching teams
Safari guides and trackers
Lodge staff, chefs, housekeepers and drivers
Local suppliers, farmers and craftspeople
Entire rural communities that rely on tourism income

A single mass poisoning event does more than kill birds. It damages a reserve's reputation, drains conservation budgets and weakens the very industry that pays for protection in the first place. Tourism and conservation are not separate stories. They are the same story.

What Can Travellers Do to Help Protect Endangered Wildlife?

You do not need to be a ranger to make a difference. Here is where travellers have real power:

Choose conservation-minded lodges and operators. Ask what they do for anti-poaching, community upliftment and wildlife monitoring.
Support specialist conservation organisations. Organisations such as Vulpro work to protect Africa's vultures through rescue, rehabilitation and release, specialised captive breeding for conservation purposes, scientific research, population monitoring, education and advocacy. Their work also addresses major threats to vulture survival, including poisoning, power line electrocutions and collisions, helping to safeguard these ecologically vital birds and the ecosystems they support.
Never buy wildlife products. If you are offered animal parts, skins or traditional items from threatened species, walk away.
Report suspicious activity. If you see or hear about wildlife crime, report it to the relevant authorities or a local conservation organisation.
Share the story. Silence is the poacher's best friend. Awareness is ours.
Visit. Responsible tourism is one of the strongest forces for keeping wild places wild.

The Bigger Picture

We often talk about wildlife as if it will always be there. The vulture overhead. The wild dog at dusk. The monkey in the canopy. But the bush is not guaranteed. It is a promise that has to be kept, by governments, by communities, by lodges and by travellers.

The black market has cast a long shadow over Africa's most vulnerable animals. The only way to push it back is to shine a light on it, and keep shining it.