Monday, October 08, 2007

Save the Vultures

An amazing story out of India on the reason for the decline in the vulture population. The story examines the ripple effect on the decline in vultures. An excerpt:

In 1990 the Indian vulture population was estimated at between 20m and 40m, divided between three species. Now it is about 10,000, and falling by 50% a year. Indeed, one species, the slender-billed vulture, numbers a mere 400. The birds are victims of a drug called diclofenac. This is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory that was developed to treat people but adopted for cattle in the 1980s. Unfortunately, it causes kidney failure in vultures—and vultures eat a lot of dead cattle. Hence the establishment of the Bombay Natural History Society's vulture-breeding centre at Pinjore, in Haryana.

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