I read in their current literature that vultures in the Indian sub-continent now face extinction. Ten to fifteen years ago there were 40 million but today there is only one percent of that total alive.
The cause is a veterinary drug - diclofenac - now banned in India, Pakistan and Nepal that is used to treat cattle. The vultures feed on dead cattle and do not take kindly to the drug which is lethal to them.
Dogs and rats now feed on the dead cattle carcasses - these pose a serious threat of disease to the local population. The task now is to clear the countries of contaminated carcasses and start a breeding programme for vultures.
Look at http://www.rspb.co.uk/ for more information on birds in the UK and worldwide.
2 comments:
Interesting. I had not heard about this.
Thanks for sharing and thanks for the recent visit.
Troy and Martha
That is really quite a reduction in a short time span. Hopefully they can reverse that. If they can completely eliminate that one problem then perhaps the population can rebound.
It is interesting that so many of the scavengers that are so needed in the natural world are not generally looked upon favorably by most people. They are not pretty, do not have beautiful songs, nor are the young cute and cuddly. Nevertheless, they fill a vital role in the ecosystems of the world.
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