Hope for vanishing vultures 31 July 2008
Posted by eatmorecookies in Links, birding, birds/nature, editorial, environment, evolution, life, vultures.trackback
Wonderful story here (though not necessarily for the squeamish) on efforts to provide safe food sources for vultures in Nepal.
Why are people feeding vultures?
In southern Asia, native vultures have declined precipitously over huge areas of their former range. The culprit? Diclofenac. It’s a pain killer often administered to cattle. When the cattle are scavenged with the drug in their system, the vultures experience acute toxicity leading to kidney failure and death.
But vultures are of value to more than just birders. There’s a heck of a lot of dead cows at any given time in say India or Nepal, and the vultures used to be the heart of a highly effective clean-up crew. With the loss of vultures, there’s been a whole lot of cow carcass accumulation, and associated problems.
More farmers are switching to a vulture-safe alternative drug “meloxicam”, but the vulture recovery will be slow. In the meantime, ornithologists like DB Chaudhary in Nepal are doing their part by establishing safe feeding areas for vultures. Volunteers collect cattle that are safe for vultures to eat and transport them to the feeding area. How do they know the cows are safe? Part of the project involves a sort of hospice for old and dying cattle. The cattle are adopted and cared for until their natural death, so the volunteers know what drugs, if any, have been administered in its final days and weeks.
The effect of Dicolfenac was unforseen and took many years to discover the link. What are the unforseen issues the world will face without the vultures specialized digestion system? New virus or species jumping disease that dogs and rats aren’t equipped to filter? This could prove to be the greatest danger to the worlds ecology, overshadowing global warming.