Background:

For millennia, vultures have played a critical ecological and cultural role among the diverse people of the Indian subcontinent. Considered abundant in the 1980s, vulture populations suddenly began to drop in the 1990s -- by up to 99% in a decade. Four types of vultures are now listed as Critically Endangered.

The Peregrine Fund established this project in 2000 to conduct scientific research and surveys to assist vulture recovery.

In 2003, The Peregrine Fund discovered that a pharmaceutical drug called diclofenac was responsible for this catastrophic decline of vultures. The birds are highly sensitive to the toxic effects of diclofenac, which is widely used to treat ailing domestic livestock, the vultures’ primary food source. We set up the first “vulture restaurant” in South Asia to offer diclofenac-free food to vultures.

Recent Results:

2010 Results

• Surveys of occupied nests for the Long-billed Vulture and Oriental White-backed Vulture in Central India showed continued stability in population numbers, though it is too early to know whether the ban on veterinary diclofenac is responsible.
• We continued to update and maintain the web-based Asian Vulture Population Project, which uses the internet to recruit vulture enthusiasts and researchers to locate and monitor remaining colonies of Gyps vultures throughout South Asia.

Surveys

In the Central Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, we continued to measure numbers of occupied nests of Long-billed Vultures (LBV) and Oriental White-backed Vultures (OWBV) to evaluate whether the Indian government ban in 2006 on the manufacture and sale of veterinary diclofenac is effective. Our study areas ranged from India’s premier Tiger Reserves (Bandhavgarh and Ranthambhore National Park) to agricultural areas and historical monuments. Over the last three breeding seasons, numbers of occupied LBV nests in both states have remained relatively stable. Although it has been only three breeding seasons since veterinary diclofenac was banned, our results are somewhat encouraging and supported by the fact that diclofenac was available in only one of 15 veterinary stores surveyed along the outskirts of Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan.

The stability of LBV breeding pairs also was mirrored in southeast Pakistan where numbers of occupied nests also have remained relatively stable over the last three breeding seasons. While the results are encouraging, we remain cautious about interpreting these results, which highlight the need for continued systematic, long-term data collection for these slow-reproducing and long-lived species to accurately measure population trends and determine the effectiveness of the diclofenac ban.

We located 15 new nests of OWBV at Kalwah near Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Asian Vulture Population Project

We continued to update and maintain the web-based Asian Vulture Population Project, which has developed into an important information resource. The project uses the internet to recruit vulture enthusiasts and researchers to locate and monitor remaining colonies of Gyps vultures throughout South Asia. By August 2010, 31 individuals and organizations had contributed data from 105 sites.

Challenges:

• Diclofenac

Project Links:

Project History	Notes From The Field
Publications and Data	Other Information
Photos and Videos

Location Note:

India, Pakistan, and Nepal

Species involved

• Long-billed Vulture  — Gyps indicus
  •  Detailed information
• Oriental White-backed Vulture  — Gyps bengalensis
  •  Detailed information
• Slender-billed Vulture  — Gyps tenuirostris
  •  Detailed information

People involved in this project:

Cooperating Partners:

• ICICI Bank

Combined Federal Campaign # 10639

5668 West Flying Hawk Lane – Boise, Idaho 83709 – United States of America

208-362-3716   —  Fax 208-362-2376  —  tpf@peregrinefund.org

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