Impact of kite string injuries and temporal variation in types of injuries and illnesses of White-rumped Vultures of central Gujarat, India

Abstract

Ahmadabad and its surrounding region (Gujarat, India) is an important breeding area for the Critically Endangered White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, currently with around 60 breeding pairs. The kite flying festival, celebrated on 14 and 15 January, poses a major threat to the vulture. Through rigorous awareness and rescue programs we encountered 108 White-rumped Vultures between January 2009 and August 2012. The vultures were injured due to kite flying (43.9%) and other causes, such as dehydration, visceral gout and illness (56.1%). Considering all encounters, survival rates were higher among vultures with kite string injuries (53.3%) when compared to other causes (36.7%). This was due to a higher proportion of dead-on-arrival encounters in other causes (45.0%) especially when compared to encounters with visceral gout and kite string injuries (2.2%). The survival rates of encounters of live rescued vultures are higher in other causes (66.7%) compared to kite string injuries (54.5%). This is mainly because the majority of live encounters (excluding kite string injuries) are dehydrated fledglings or juveniles which recover well upon administration of intravenous fluids. Encounters of live vultures with kite string injuries involve birds with severe blood loss, incurable infections and stress which result in decreased survival. Most casualties from kite string injuries are due to hypovolumic shock, septic shock and stress.