Spare a thought for the vulture.
Firstly these giant birds’ scavenging habits and ominous features have landed them with a fairly hefty image problem. In cartoons they are regularly portrayed as sinister and malevolent while their name has become shorthand for cold hearted self preservation.
In actual fact these striking birds are quite incredible and have come to serve an important function in Indian culture. Cows are sacred in India and Hindus do not slaughter them for meat. When they die their carcasses are traditionally left in dedicated open air graveyards to be picked clean by scavengers.
In the past vultures have carried out this job. But then the drug diclofenac – deadly to vultures - became widely used to treat diseases in cows, with catastrophic results. For every 1000 Oriental white-backed vultures occurring in southern Asia in the 1980s only one remains today.
Scientists have been on the look out for a safer alternative to the drug in order to reverse the decline in vultures. But now they face a major set back with the discovery that a second livestock treatment in Asia - ketoprofen - is also lethal to the birds, causing kidney failure.
There are safe drugs out there and conservationists are pushing hard for them to be used instead of the harmful alternatives. Vultures have disappeared from large parts of India, Pakistan and Nepal and three species of the bird are on the brink of extinction.
So maybe it’s about time we throw our preconceptions about these majestic creatures out the window before they disappear forever.
We've been lucky enough to see 8 out of the 9 species in India, when we've been India over the years since '96 and I think the oriental white back only on two occassions. Not had the red-headed, which is very widespread, but there you go, - maybe next year.
When you read stats like you have above it really brings it home. It really is tragic. thought things were improving when diclofenac had been replaced and it was really sad to read on line this week and then your blog today.
They are a joy to see soaring and very amusing when wallking/skipping on the ground - face to face they could hardly be described as beauties but beauties they certainly are in the air. Really sad bad news.