Vulture diaryWelcome to the vulture diary written by RSPB researchers. It tells you about the continuing important work that the RSPB has been involved with in India to help declining vultures. It also tells you how the money raised by the 2006 RSPB Wildlife Explorer Vanishing Vultures appeal was used.…… make sure you start at the bottom!April 2008
Recent months have seen some real progress with our efforts. But this is against a backdrop of further declines in the wild. The results of road surveys carried out last year along set routes by Vibhu and his team have just been published. It shows that the declines have already continued and one of the species has actually declined by 99.9%. So just one in a thousand is left. I was in India last month and Nita is battling hard to get the Government officials to make the 2006 manufacturing ban more effective. She reports that 14 companies now produce the safe alternative drug meloxicam, and the price is gradually coming down. There is still a lot of diclofenac still being used though – so still some battling and awareness-raising ahead. Vibhu and his teams are now busy locating nestlings in the wild and sorting permissions to be able to bring them to the breeding centres. At least 8 have been brought in over the past month and we hope they can still bring more to safety where they can become part of the future breeding stock (remember they wont breed until they reach the age of 5). Richard has been very busy both in India and Nepal. In Nepal he helped our BirdLife Partner and the Government NTNC to start a new centre there. Permissions had been pending for over 2 years, but came through and thanks to great efforts we now have 14 nestlings in the new centre there which is only just being built. April 2008Work starts on third Breeding CentreWork has started in Assam on the third vulture breeding centre. This centre is going to be crucial for the rarest of the three species affected by the crisis, the slender-billed vulture. The Oriental Bird Club has helped with the construction work, and our BirdLife Partner, the Bombay National History Society (BNHS) has been at full stretch to keep all three centres running smoothly. Fifty more vulture nestlings have been brought to the West Bengal centre, collected by Richard Cuthbert from cliffs in Madhya Pradesh. This brings the total number of birds in captivity to 160, but we need to more than double this number to ensure enough birds for the breeding programme. It is a race against time as the latest surveys show that the vultures have continued to decline over the past three years. Sadly the first two vulture nestlings hatched in captivity died. Although this was very disappointing it is something we have to accept. 19 March 2007More recruits for the breeding centreThe team in West Bengal, led by Sachin Ranade, has successfully brought 12 young vultures to the centre from various parts of the state over the past three weeks. These are all oriental white-backed vultures, and are held in smaller aviaries until they are big enough to be put in the main aviary. The state forest Department, lead by Mr Lepcha, has played a crucial role in locating the nests and making this possible for the Bombay Natural History Society team. This species nests in the tops of tall trees, which makes them a little more accessible than the long-billed vultures which nest on cliffs! Posted by Chris Bowden March 2007
Beavers making a differenceThe Vanishing Vultures appeal received a big boost from the Maidenhead Beaver Colonies. Most of the 12 Maidenhead 'Beaver Colonies' dedicated their 'District Good Turn' to the appeal and presented RSPB volunteer Gerry Studd with a cheque for £1340.53, I was gob-smacked! The plight of vultures in India struck a chord with many young people and the beavers here were really interested in the Asian vultures. To raise this much money was a fantastic achievement. Well done to all the Beavers who took part! 8 January 2007
The best New Year present ever!We have some fantastic news for you. For the first time ever, a white-backed vulture chick has hatched at our breeding centre at Pinjore in India. The egg was laid back in November, so we've been waiting nervously for two months. We hope that this success will be the first of many! In fact, we didn't expect our vultures to breed until 2008, so we're ahead of schedule now. It's great news but we still have lots of work to do! As you can see from the photo, the vultures' nest is a bit scruffy, but it's amazing to see such big birds being so gentle with their youngster. Posted by Chris Bowden 8 November 2006
A day in the life of a vultureThings are going well at our two vulture breeding centres. We have a total of 132 vultures to look after, so things are pretty busy. We hope that, later this month, they'll start to breed, though because most of our birds are young, they might not get it right the first time. Watch out for news on that later. Have you been wondering what life is like for them? While we’re taking care of the vultures in the aviaries (until it’s safe to let them out again), we want them to breed. It’s very important that they’re well-fed, so that they’re in the best condition possible. Because it was the vultures’ food that caused so many of them to die in the first place, we’re extra careful about what they eat. As I’m sure you know, vultures are meat-eating birds which prefer to eat things which are already dead. The vultures in our centres are fed goats, but not just any old goats – we keep a special herd which we know are free of any poisonous medicines. The vultures get the best food, but only twice a week! It’s natural for the birds to go a few days without eating in the wild, so that’s what we do in the centres, too. There’s a lot of squabbling at meal-times which we watch on television – because the birds are so shy, we have hidden cameras in the aviaries so we can spy on them! Posted by Chris Bowden 18 September 2006
Just back from India...I'm just back from a mission to attend the grand opening of the second vulture breeding centre, at Buxa Tiger Reserve, in the north of West Bengal (just a few miles from both Bhutan and Bangladesh). Despite torrential rains and thunderstorms, I made it there in time (my four-hour journey back to the airport took longer as a bridge had been washed away!). The grand opening was attended by lots of important people, including the Honourable Mr Ananta Roy, who’s in charge of the Government of West Bengal’s Department of Forests, and the British Deputy High Commissioner for East India, Simon Wilson. They each released a white-backed vulture into one of the new aviaries. Fortunately, the birds behaved themselves and flew to perch high up in their new home, to the delight of everyone present. We then went to see the fantastic new facilities at the centre, including the equipment for fitting the birds’ rings, wing-tags and microchips (so we can check which bird is which). We also showed the ‘Vanishing Vultures’ film to an audience of more than 100 people. It’s wonderful that vultures are being taken so seriously, and it gives me real hope that the breeding centres will be a success. It’s a long-term project, though, and there is lots of hard work ahead. The money you’ve been raising for the appeal helps to fund these centres, so please keep going! Posted by Chris Bowden 16 August 2006
Meet the teamHello - we are the team that have been looking after the vulture appeal at the RSPB headquarters in Sandy, Bedfordshire. We have been amazed at all the different ways you have raised the money. Today, the amount raised reached £19,700 - just incredible! Thank you to everyone for all your hard work and effort. Please keep up your good work! You're doing amazingly well - I wonder what the eventual total will be? Posted by Lesley Nundy 11 August 2006
Goodbye diclofenac!Today is the day after which all production or importation of veterinary diclofenac becomes illegal in India! We had more good news just last week that six more Indian companies have started making the safe alternative cattle drug called meloxicam. This means that the farmers will still be able to treat their cows like before, but without putting the last few vultures at risk. We just need to make sure that they all keep the price down now, like they have in Nepal! Our Vulture Advocacy Officer who works for the Indian BirdLife Partner is Nita Shah. She's based in Delhi (India's capital) and regularly meets Government officials to make sure that the vulture issue is treated as priority! Posted by Chris Bowden 2 August 2006
Amazing news for vultures in NepalA drug company in Nepal (a country near India, in the Himalaya mountains) has worked out how to make a replacement for diclofenac. What's even better is that the new, vulture-safe drug, called Melox, is the same price as the old, bad one - and the Nepali government has stopped production of the old drug immediately! Now we need to persuade the other countries where vultures are dying - India and Pakistan - that they should do the same thing. Posted by Richard Cuthbert 22 June 2006
How to catch vulturesI've just got back from a trip to India where I spent two months catching vulture chicks. Vultures nest in hard-to-get-to places, steep cliffs and the tops of large trees, where they are out of reach of predators. I've had to practise my climbing and abseiling skills in order to catch chicks from these places, which was hard work especially as India is so hot. We managed to catch 27 chicks which are now safely in the vulture breeding centre where they are fed a safe diet that is free from the problem drug. We will be holding the chicks here until it is safe to release them back in to the wild Posted by Richard Cuthbert 23 May 2006
Great news for vultures!We've had some fantastic news today. The Indian government has told drug companies to stop making and selling the animal drug (diclofenac) that's poisoned the vultures. Instead, they can sell an alternative which RSPB scientists have helped prove is really safe! It's not just great news for the birds, but great for people in Asia, too. For example, now that there are hardly any vultures to eat dead animals, there are more stray dogs instead which can pass on nasty illnesses, like rabies, on to people. We're all thrilled about this decision - we hope it will be the 'turning point' which stops the vultures from dying out completely. Please keep raising money as we still have a lot of work to do! Posted by Chris Bowden 29 April 2006
My name's Chris!... and I’m in charge of the RSPB’s work to get the drugs that are killing the vultures banned. To stop any more vultures from being poisoned, we are catching them to look after them until it's safe again. I am making sure that we can move them into specially-built vulture centres as quickly as possible. I spend over a third of my time in India, working closely with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). A lot of my time is taken up meeting people that can help us. This week I am travelling to the breeding centre at Pinjore, Haryana (north-west India, at the edge of the Himalaya mountains). The state Environment Minister is visiting the centre, which is a great chance to get more support. We will also show the short film 'Vanishing Vultures' again. This film seems to be attracting lots of attention, and even the Indian Prime Minister has asked to see it! We're really hoping that all this publicity will lead to a proper ban on the dangerous drugs in the near future. Posted by Chris Bowden 17 March 2006No vultures here!Today I am meeting with some more journalists in Delhi to ask them to keep telling everyone about the vulture story in the newspapers. Sadly, I haven’t seen a single vulture in Bombay or Delhi in two weeks! Posted by Andy Waters 15 March 2006Where have they all gone?I met up with some other RSPB staff today who have been working at the vulture breeding centres. We visited Sultanpur bird sanctuary but sadly we didn’t see a single vulture all day – 10 years ago, there would have been lots... Posted by Andy Waters 4 March 2006
Hello – my name is Andy... and I also work for the RSPB. I am visiting Bombay and Delhi in India to try and see for myself what is happening to the vultures. There are lots of journalists here too and they want to help tell everyone the story about vultures. Tonight, we all saw an amazing film called ‘The Vanishing Vultures’, which was all about the decline of India’s vultures to the brink of extinction. The film has been made to show to governments and farmers to help them understand why they should not give their cattle drugs that are harmful to vultures. Posted by Andy Waters 24 February 2006
I'm Richard....... and I am a scientist working for the RSPB on the vulture project out in India and Nepal. I have just got back from my latest trip to India and once again, I saw fewer vultures than last time. You will have already read that the vulture crisis is one of the most urgent conservation issues in the world - we need as much support as possible. While the number of vultures is still getting less, we are making progress on the project. Recently, we captured another 17 birds for the captive breeding centre where they can be kept safe and away from the problem drug. I'll be spending the whole of March and April catching vulture chicks, so hopefully there will be a lot more safe birds in two months’ time. Posted by Richard Cuthbert |
