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View Full Version : Indian vulture births are hailed



Mrudul Godbole
14-09-2009, 02:50 PM
An interesting article published on the BBC-

It is estimated that there are now only about 1,000 slender billed vultures left
Conservationists say they are delighted at the news that one of the world's most endangered birds has twice been successfully bred in India.

Two slender billed vultures, which experts say are rarer and more endangered than the tiger, are being reared in Haryana and West Bengal.

Officials say that the chicks were born separately are both in good health.

It is believed the vultures' catastrophic decline has been driven by veterinary medicines.

A decade ago, vultures could be counted in their millions in the wild in India.

But now experts estimate there are only around a 1,000 slender-billed vultures left, with similar declines in other species.

They say it is a a population catastrophe exacerbated by medicine.

A veterinary drug called Diclofenac is fatal to the vultures that feed off the livestock carcasses.

Although it has been banned since 2006, experts say it is still in use.

The BBC's environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee says that the dramatic decline of vultures has had several effects including an increase in rabies-carrying feral dogs that feed on the carrion the vultures once ate.

The Parsi community in Mumbai (Bombay), who leave their dead to be consumed by vultures, have had to find alternative methods following the dramatic decline of the birds.

The Birdlife International campaigning group says that while the captive births are good news, urgent action is still needed to save vultures from extinction in the wild.

"With extinction in the wild likely in the next 10 years, we do not have a moment to waste. The more vultures that we can bring into captivity means a better chance of survival for these rapidly-declining species," Birdlife International spokesman Chris Bowden said.

"Birds can only be saved from extinction through banning the retail sale of Diclofenac, promotion of the safe alternative, Meloxicam, and the capture of more birds for the breeding programme."

Link - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8187533.stm

Henry Gonsalves
15-09-2009, 11:42 PM
Banning unsafe veterinary drugs like Dicloenac? OK. But who will implement the ban. We in India know all too well the difficulties here. However, one solution to bring back the vulture to a safe number would be to remove every alternate clutch of eggs, incubate and rear them in a safe environment which would give the young a far better survival rate than they would expect from parent reared ones. This would even reduce the stress imposed on the parents of rearing consective broods.

Rajeev Mathew
17-09-2009, 01:39 PM
Diclofenac has been banned, but as Henry Gonsalves points who's monitoring the ban? While Chris Bowden's right in wasting no time in trying to save the vultures, in India where the drug is still being used, who will be monitor the meat coming in to feed the vultures? The solution lies in slaughtering animals that are free of Diclofenac to be fed to the vultures. But who will do this is a million dollar question. At Hyderabad Zoo the captive White backed vultures nest and lay eggs that never hatch. The point is, if we are serious about conserving and saving vultures from extinction we have a job cut out.

Cheers,
Rajeev M.