This summer, Bird Team member Owen Lincoln is celebrating his birthday in style – by lacing up his hiking boots and taking on the Three Peaks challenge to raise funds for vulture conservation! With the tallest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales to conquer in just 24 hours, this is no mean feat. Owen is hoping to raise £8000 for our Pakistan Vulture Restoration Project (PVRP) – an important part of our work conserving Asian vultures.
Find out more about why Owen is so passionate about our work in Pakistan:
“Why am I taking on the 3 Peaks Challenge?
For me it’s a bit of a no-brainier! I have two passions in life, one is long treks and walking in the great outdoors, the other is (of course) birds – but more specifically vultures. So, what better way to combine the two than pushing myself to the absolute limit and testing my abilities whilse raising money for one of our conservation and research projects that I hold very dear to my heart?
If you have been to the Trust before I’m sure you have heard us speak passionately about the issues vultures face in Africa, but we also work intensively in Asia too. I am raising funds for our Pakistan Vulture Restoration Project to help with the ground-breaking work taking place to prevent the extinction of Asia’s threatened vulture species.
I am confident in my ability to complete the three highest peaks of England, Scotland and Wales in 24 hours. That’s three countries and three mountains all in one day. Over the 24 hour time period, I’ll be hiking 44km and climbing over 3000 meters!
I can’t ask for help with my hike, but I am asking for your help to raise money for these beautiful and crucial birds before it is too late. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something, and together I know we can make a big difference.
Thank you all for your continued support and I’ll see you at the finish line!”
Owen is hoping to raise £8000 for our Pakistan Vulture Restoration Project (PVRP) – an important part of our work conserving Asian vultures. Since the mid-1990s, tens of millions of vultures in south Asia have died from ingesting a veterinary drug called diclofenac – a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is highly toxic to vultures if they feed on the carcass of an animal that has been treated with it shortly before death.
This important project aims to create Vulture Safe Zones free of this and other dangerous drugs for wild vulture populations to thrive. The Trust also funds a breeding centre in Changa Manga, run by our partners WWF-Pakistan, for Asian White-backed Vultures to one day be released into these safe zones, helping to boost numbers of these birds in the wild.
Although Owen has previously completed each peak separately, the challenge of completing them all within 24 hours is a daunting task – and on his birthday no less! He will need your help and support to get him to the top of all three mountains, as well as helping him hit his goal to raise £8000 for this incredible project.
