Several Species of Asian Vultures will be Extinct Soon
posted in Animal Species |
Several Asian vultures will be extinct within a span of a decade. These carrion-eating birds have been decreasing in number on account of being exposed to common livestock drug. This fact has been highlighted by a research conducted by Todd Katzner, Director of Conservation and Field Research at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The study has appeared in the Journal of Bombay Natural History Society.
Asian vultures, initially, began to die mysteriously during 1990s. Expert felt that veterinary diclofenac, which is an inexpensive and popular anti-inflammatory drug was given to the livestock.
In 2004, a study indicated that vultures feeding on the carcasses of diclofenac-treated cows were dying of kidney failure. The drug was, of course, banned in 2006, but yet left- over stocks of the drug could be found in the bodies of the cattle. A single exposure could prove to be lethal.
Researchers counted live vultures along roadways in central and northern India between March 2007 and June 2007 covering 11,700 miles. Based on this study it was observed that oriental white backed vultures have reduced in number quite drastically. Now, there are only 11,000 as compared to tens and millions earlier two decades ago. Slender-billed and long billed have each reduced in number by 97%- 1,000 and 45,000 respectively remain in India. The disappearance of these vultures will directly affect social customs and public health.
In 2001, in an article that appeared in the British Medical Journal, a link was established between the two outbreaks of anthrax in humans to the absence of vultures, which scavenge on anthrax infected cattle. Also the absence of vultures has proved to be a setback to the Parsi tradition of leaving the dead in “Silence of Towers’ to be eaten by vultures. Now, they have to resort to giant solar reflectors to quicken the decomposition process. They do not bury or burn their bodies by tradition.
The main challenge faced is that huge stocks of the diclofenac drug are lying with the distributors. Conservationists feel that vultures should be forced into captive breeding programs for a decade or more. Other factors responsible for vulture extinction are nesting grounds being lost to urbanization and the loss off habitat.