White-rumped Vulture Gyps Bengalensis Research Articles

An annotated checklist of fishes from Bhutan

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.

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

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.

Population viability analysis of Critically Endangered white-rumped vultures Gyps bengalensis

More than a decade has passed since the catastrophic population decline in Gyps species was reported from South Asia, but much uncertainty remains about quantifying their short-term extinction risk. To estimate the future extinction risk of the white-rumped vulture Gyps bengalensis in Nepal, we conducted counts at 7 nesting colonies between 2002 and 2012. We com- pared 3 methods of estimating abundance based on count data and calculated mean population growth rates and cumulative probabilities of extinction given the abundance estimates from each method. The first 2 methods of abundance estimation were traditional indices: mean and maxi- mum values of all counts. The third method was a mixture modeling approach that corrected raw counts by a detection parameter. The results of the traditional indices were characterized by high uncertainty levels as reflected in the wide confidence intervals, which limited their capacity to make predictions about the fate of the populations with any confidence. The mixture modeling method provided more reliable results; there was a 51% probability of populations facing quasi- extinction (i.e. ≤20 vultures) in 13 yr and a 99% probability of quasi-extinction in 18 yr. Because the mixture modeling method provided more precise predictions while requiring minimal addi- tional effort, population biologists using count data are encouraged to employ such model-based estimators. The white-rumped vulture populations in Rampur are in danger of disappearing within 2 decades, so conservation efforts should be expedited to prevent the loss of this species.

Promising trend of in situ breeding of Oriental White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis in Raigad District, Maharashtra, India: conservation implications for re-introduction of ex situ populations

The population of Gyps vultures crashed at an alarming rate in India, from 85% since 1985-86 to 0% in 1997-99. There are sporadic records of sightings, wild breeding and captive breeding of Gyps and Neophron Vultures from 2005 to 2010 from various parts of India. We noticed continued, uninterrupted successful nesting of Oriental White-rumped Vultures Gyps bengalensis in their natural habitats in Raigad District, Maharashtra from 2004 to 2011. Their breeding population steadily increased from 10 pairs in 2004-2005 to 22 pairs in 2010-2011 and the nesting success steadily increased from 30% in 2004-2005 to 70% in 2010-2011. We feel that the naturally breeding populations are a must for successful re-introduction of the juvenile captive-bred vultures in the wild, and both in situ and ex situ breeding of vultures should be coordinated till the vulture population increases to an acceptable level and stabilizes in the Indian subcontinent. Identification of natural active nest sites is the foremost requirement for safeguarding the breeding of the Oriental White-rumped Vultures in private land by winning peoples participation.

Nesting of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis in Orchha Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh, India

Nesting of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis in Orchha Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh, India

Vultures in Cambodia: population, threats and conservation

SummaryAsian vultures have undergone dramatic declines of 90–99% in the Indian Subcontinent, as a consequence of poisoning by veterinary use of the drug diclofenac, and are at a high risk of extinction. Cambodia supports one of the only populations of three species (White-rumped VultureGyps bengalensis, Slender-billed VultureG. tenuirostrisand Red-headed VultureSarcogyps calvus) outside of South Asia where diclofenac use is not widespread. Conservation of the Cambodian sub-populations is therefore a global priority. This study analyses the results of a long-term research programme into Cambodian vultures that was initiated in 2004. Population sizes of each species are estimated at 50–200+ individuals, ranging across an area of approximately 300 km by 250 km, including adjacent areas in Laos and Vietnam. The principal causes of vulture mortality were poisoning (73%), probably as an accidental consequence of local hunting and fishing practices, and hunting or capture for traditional medicine (15%). This represents a significant loss from such a small population of long-lived, slow breeding, species such as vultures. Cambodian vultures are severely food limited and are primarily dependent on domestic ungulate carcasses, as wild ungulate populations have been severely depleted over the past 20 years. Local people across the vulture range still follow traditional animal husbandry practices, including releasing livestock into the open deciduous dipterocarp forest areas when they are not needed for work, providing the food source. Reducing threats through limiting the use of poisons (which are also harmful for human health) and supplementary food provisioning in the short to medium-term through ‘vulture restaurants’ is critical if Cambodian vultures are to be conserved.

Diclofenac is toxic to the Himalayan Vulture Gyps himalayensis

Veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac has been shown to be the major cause of the collapse of populations of three Gyps vulture species endemic to South Asia. The White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture G. indicus and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris, have declined by more than 98% in the Indian subcontinent since the early 1990s, and are now all listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ (IUCN 2004). Gyps vultures are exposed to diclofenac through consuming the contaminated carcasses of livestock that have been treated with the drug shortly before death and die from kidney failure, with clinical signs of extensive visceral gout and renal damage. These clinical signs and diclofenac residues have been found in carcasses of wild G. bengalensis and G. indicus, and in G. bengalensis either dosed with diclofenac orally or given tissues from diclofenac treated livestock. Research on White-backed Vultures G. africanus, Eurasian Griffons G. fulvus and Cape Vultures G. coprotheres has established that these three species are about as sensitive to diclofenac as G. bengalensis, with birds dying with the same clinical signs of visceral gout and characteristic renal damage. This experimental testing has established that diclofenac is toxic to four species of vultures in the genus Gyps, but information on the toxicity of diclofenac to other members of the genus is lacking.

Conservation implications of contingent valuation of critically endangered white-rumped vulture Gyps bengalensis in South Asia

We randomly selected 103 households and conducted a face-to-face interview in one of the Important Bird Areas of Nepal during the summer of 2004. We used referendum-type questions to elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the conservation of the critically endangered White-rumped vulture, Gyps bengalensis. The Logit Regression Model was used to predict variables that influence WTP. The mean and median WTP per household were NRs 115.2 and NRs 119.9, respectively. The estimated aggregate benefits of vulture conservation at local, district and national levels were NRs 125,994, NRs 5,989,882 and NRs 510,117,491, respectively. We also conducted benefit-cost analysis of two vulture conservation strategies: habitat protection and captive breeding. At a local level, the benefit-cost ratio of habitat protection was 0.35 while the ratios at district and national levels were much higher. Captive breeding at the national level cost more but remained economically viable. The results indicated that the economic burden of vulture conservation may not lie only in the local population; as benefits accrue to users beyond the local population, so must costs in order for conservation programmes to be economically viable. Based on our policy analysis, we conclude that support at national and international level is critical for conserving biodiversity at local levels.