Hi I'm Danny! I'm travelling around the world! Follow me.

I'm staying in one of the many wildlife conservancies that border the Maasai Mara national reserve in Kenya. For the next couple weeks I'm going to try and post each evening from The Naboisho Conservancy.

As we were driving through the bush today we spotted a hartebeest carcass surrounded by scavenging vultures.

The Vulture has somewhat an ugly reputation but they are actually one of the most important animals in the entire ecosystem. There's a huge need for education amongst the Maasai people because recently they have been poisoning animal carcasses to retaliate against lions killing their cattle.

The lions eat the poisoned carcass and die, then when the vultures come in to scavenge they are also poisoned. It's a vicious cycle.

Vultures are incredibly important for combatting disease. There are so many prey and predators here that the Maasai Mara is littered with kills and disease. The vultures come in and clean up the environment till there is nothing left except bones and the skulls of the dead animals. Hyenas also play this role to an extent too.