Vulture breeding plan shelved
The world’s first vulture breeding programme for a socio-religious purpose has been shelved. Parsis are traditionally laid to rest in Mumbai’s Tower of Silence where vultures (now endangered) devour their dead bodies. But scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) say that the breeding programme, which would have cost Rs 1 crore, would have failed because of the use of diclofenac-laced painkillers by Parsis. Diclofenac has proven deadly for vultures.
“We had been considering the project for long in order to breed enough birds for the Parsi tradition. But scientists studying the proposal shelved it saying it will not be possible since the vultures eating the dead bodies with diclofenac in them will die anyway,” says Minal Shroff, chairman of the Bombay Parsi Panchayat, which was spearheading the programme.
Jehangir Bismey of the Hyderabad-Secunderabad Parsi Panchayat says the proposal for the breeding programme was flawed from the beginning. “You can not breed vultures in captivity. It is scientifically impossible since they breed only in open and lay eggs in a pattern that cannot be achieved in captivity. The project was being considered only because of the pulls and pressures of certain lobbies in the community,” he says.
Original article here
About captive vulture breeding programes.copied from the net, various sites.
Ofcourse its a time consuming solution but also permanent soulution. Also one has to realise that the captive breeding programes have themselves evolved and thus the scienist have learnt and improved the strategies and equipment which lessens th time now.
Also the Parsi’s dont have to start from scratch but can leap to the present day vulture consevation programes with the knowledge of the scienist and conservationist and also take help from charities invlolving vulture conservation.
But ofcourse , wher do we get the will and how do we tackle the sttitude of anti aviary lobby within the community, are the questions to be asked!!!!Also we have leaders that pronounce fiction as facts such as Jehangirs bisney statement that capive breeding is not possible.
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Chick success for Asian vultures
Conservationists hope the vulture chick will be the first of many Conservationists are celebrating the arrival of the first oriental white-backed vulture chick to be born in captivity in India.
The bird belongs to one of three species of Asian vulture that are listed as critically endangered.
Populations in the wild have crashed because they eat carcasses containing traces of the drug diclofenac.
The use of the anti-inflammatory drug in the region is being phased out but it could take 10 years, scientists say.
Dr Vibhu Prakash, principal scientist for the vulture breeding programme, said: “This is the most precious new year gift from nature to vulture conservation.”
The egg was laid in November and the centre’s staff had been waiting and hoping ever since, he added.
“This success shows that we have got the conditions right, so we can plan ahead with confidence.”
Soaring death toll
We have to measure all of our successes against the backdrop that we are still talking about the extinction of the vultures
Nick Lindsay,
Zoological Society of London
The breeding centre, based in Pinjore, northern India, is run by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), and is supported by Indian government departments and organisations, including the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Nick Lindsay, ZSL’s head of international zoo programmes, said the society had been heavily involved in the centre since the late 1990s.
“It was established with a UK government Darwin Initiative grant, when the cause of the decline in vultures was still being investigated,” he said.
The centre shifted its focus from research to breeding once it was discovered that diclofenac, a drug widely used by vets in the region to treat cattle, was the main reason for the vultures’ deaths.
The link was firmly established in 2004 when tests on captive vultures fed carcass flesh traced with the drug produced symptoms that were strikingly similar to those witnessed in sick birds in the wild.
Mr Lindsay said the centre’s work concentrated on the three species most seriously affected by diclofenac: the oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis), the long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris).
In the past 15 years, population losses of more than 95% have been reported in these birds.
‘Worrying scenario’
Although India, Pakistan and Nepal were taking steps to phase out the use of the drug, Mr Lindsay said the birds’ battle for survival was far from over.
Vultures used to be a more common sight in the skies
“We have to measure all of our successes against the backdrop that we are still talking about the extinction of the vultures,” he warned.
“The communities that use this drug can be remote; cattle are literally found in their millions and people care very much for their well-being, so the drug is still being widely used because it is a very effective treatment for the cattle.
“If you take all those different factors, it creates quite a worrying scenario.”
But he added that there were some projects on the ground that were helping to take the drug out of circulation.
In Nepal, conservation groups were visiting pharmacies and clinics located within areas used by vultures and swapping supplies of diclofenac with a bird-friendly replacement, meloxicam.
“This sort of thing might be possible in Nepal because it is a much smaller country than India and the problem is not as extensive,” he suggested.
“But even then it is going to be a struggle because the range of these birds is so vast.”
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Can Captive Breeding Rescue Vultures from Extinction?
“In concept it is very simple. In practice it takes a lot of time,” Watson said. “We are talking a minimum of 20 years, more like 30 years, of effort. And it’s not cheap.”
Estimated costs for the project run as high as one million U.S. dollars each year. Watson said that while such funding is not yet secured, conservationists have gotten the governments of India, Pakistan, and Nepal to commit to species restoration.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is working in India with the Bombay Natural History Society and the Haryana state government to expand a vulture care center in the town of Pinjore. The center is designed to look after sick and injured birds and to include a captive-breeding program. Additional support for the expansion effort comes from the United Kingdom-based Institute of Zoology and the U.K. National Bird of Prey Trust.
Pain said three aviaries large enough to hold 20 birds of each of the three species are currently being built at the facility. Plans call for further expansions.
The United Arab Emirates’ Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency has offered to host 25 breeding pairs of each species for Pakistan and Nepal for a few years, until those countries develop local facilities and expertise for captive breeding.
Recovery Possible?
According to Watson, the chances of a successful recovery for the Asian white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture are good, assuming that captive breeding populations can be quickly established. He is more concerned about the slender-billed vulture.
“There are so few individuals left of this species that to my knowledge, no one knows if they are even breeding at this point. So chances of collecting enough birds for a successful captive-breeding effort are much reduced,” he said.
According to Pain, if the international bird-conservation community works together and successfully implements a captive-breeding program, the vultures can be saved. “I don’t think it will be easy, but it’s certainly possible,” she said.
Meanwhile, the impact of the vulture decline is already being felt throughout the subcontinent. Rotting carcasses left uneaten by vultures pose a health hazard. Such carcasses are linked to the spread of diseases such as anthrax, according to the conservationists.
Other animals, such as rats, cats, and dogs, are filling the niche once filled by vultures. Wild dog populations in particular have increased substantially, leading to an increase in the spread of rabies and physical attacks on people.
Given the proven ability to bring vultures back from brink of extinction, Watson said action must be taken: “In this day and age of rapid species extinction, it is exceedingly foolish to let a species go extinct when there’s something you can do about it.”
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Compare the attitude of Zoroastrians that flew the aden flame to India in a plane, taking permission from indian govt.and shifting it to Puna.
Compare the zoroastrians who migrated to india who rekindled the consecrated fires to keep alive the zoroastrian faith.Without them here would have been no fire temples and dokhma’s and thus zoroastrianism would have not survived as zoroastrian practises would have not started again in a foreign land.
NOW WE HAVE THE LEADERS WHO WANT TO CLOE DOKHMENISHINI SYSTEM , OPEN UP THE AGIARIES AND SELL PRECIOUS LANDS LIKE THE Parsi lying in hospital.
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California Condor lays egg in Mexico
Staff and agencies
05 April, 2007
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 2, 7:09 PM ET
SAN DIEGO – A California condor has laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s, biologists at the Zoological Society of San Diego announced Monday. If the chick hatches and survives, scientists hope it will herald the return of a breeding condor population to Mexico, decades after the iconic giant of the skies was wiped out there.
Wallace and colleagues found the egg March 25 in an abandoned eagle nest on a cliff in the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park, located in the arid interior of the Baja California peninsula more than 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to see where the situation is going,” said Wallace, who works for the zoological society‘s center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. The society also runs the San Diego Zoo and its wild animal park.
A type of vulture, the condor scavenges dead fish and animals — as coastal population of seals and otters declined, so too did the bird. The use of poison to kill California‘s grizzly bears in the 1800s also devastated numbers and lead shot remains a potential source of poison. Hunting, egg collecting, and power cables were also blamed for hurting the creature‘s numbers.
Thanks to a captive-breeding program, numbers recovered to a worldwide total of about 280. More than 100 of these fly free in the skies above parts of California, Nevada and Utah. Working with the Mexican government, biologists reintroduced captive-bred birds to Mexico in 2002.
Weighing up to 26 pounds and with a wingspan of almost 10 feet, the California condor is one of the world‘s largest birds. Another species of condor, found in the Andes, is also under threat but its numbers are in the thousands, Wallace said.
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Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 2, 7:09 PM ET
SAN DIEGO – A California condor has laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s, biologists at the Zoological Society of San Diego announced Monday. If the chick hatches and survives, scientists hope it will herald the return of a breeding condor population to Mexico, decades after the iconic giant of the skies was wiped out there.
Wallace and colleagues found the egg March 25 in an abandoned eagle nest on a cliff in the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park, located in the arid interior of the Baja California peninsula more than 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to see where the situation is going,” said Wallace, who works for the zoological society‘s center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. The society also runs the San Diego Zoo and its wild animal park.
A type of vulture, the condor scavenges dead fish and animals — as coastal population of seals and otters declined, so too did the bird. The use of poison to kill California‘s grizzly bears in the 1800s also devastated numbers and lead shot remains a potential source of poison. Hunting, egg collecting, and power cables were also blamed for hurting the creature‘s numbers.
Thanks to a captive-breeding program, numbers recovered to a worldwide total of about 280. More than 100 of these fly free in the skies above parts of California, Nevada and Utah. Working with the Mexican government, biologists reintroduced captive-bred birds to Mexico in 2002.
Weighing up to 26 pounds and with a wingspan of almost 10 feet, the California condor is one of the world‘s largest birds. Another species of condor, found in the Andes, is also under threat but its numbers are in the thousands, Wallace said.
___
Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/
Well how come then scientists and conservationist are saying that captive breeding is the main solution to increase vulture population. Jehangir Bismey would you like to challenge reports of sucessfull vulture conservation programes.Ofcourse this takes time but then all permanent solutions do. Lack of will from you guys who potray yourselves as leaders, no solution for that and ofcourse millions of excuses within the parsi punchayats that aid land grabebrs and those who want to start a crematorium or buriyal system.
Compare this with the zoroastrians that migrated to india. iF THEY WOULD HAVE NOT haD THE WILL , THER WOULD HAVE BEEN NO fire temple nor a dokhma nor zoroastrianism as zorastrian culture would cease to exist witht he decline or non rekindling of zorastrian practises.
Compare the story of the Aden fire being shifted in a PLANE from Aden to India and then to poona!It happened because of the will..
Here are some cut and copied articles from the net of the importance of captive vulture programes.
We have an advantage as we can skip the learning curve of an aviary as conservationist and scientist have already bettered if not mastered captive breeding. Also since the 1990′s new equipment and strategies have evolved. The world body for vulture conservation is also helping. then why we as a community cannot take the oppurtunity.Is it because our leaders falter?
California Condor lays egg in Mexico
Staff and agencies
05 April, 2007
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 2, 7:09 PM ET
SAN DIEGO – A California condor has laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s, biologists at the Zoological Society of San Diego announced Monday. If the chick hatches and survives, scientists hope it will herald the return of a breeding condor population to Mexico, decades after the iconic giant of the skies was wiped out there.
Wallace and colleagues found the egg March 25 in an abandoned eagle nest on a cliff in the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park, located in the arid interior of the Baja California peninsula more than 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to see where the situation is going,” said Wallace, who works for the zoological society‘s center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. The society also runs the San Diego Zoo and its wild animal park.
A type of vulture, the condor scavenges dead fish and animals — as coastal population of seals and otters declined, so too did the bird. The use of poison to kill California‘s grizzly bears in the 1800s also devastated numbers and lead shot remains a potential source of poison. Hunting, egg collecting, and power cables were also blamed for hurting the creature‘s numbers.
Thanks to a captive-breeding program, numbers recovered to a worldwide total of about 280. More than 100 of these fly free in the skies above parts of California, Nevada and Utah. Working with the Mexican government, biologists reintroduced captive-bred birds to Mexico in 2002.
Weighing up to 26 pounds and with a wingspan of almost 10 feet, the California condor is one of the world‘s largest birds. Another species of condor, found in the Andes, is also under threat but its numbers are in the thousands, Wallace said.
___
Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 2, 7:09 PM ET
SAN DIEGO – A California condor has laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s, biologists at the Zoological Society of San Diego announced Monday. If the chick hatches and survives, scientists hope it will herald the return of a breeding condor population to Mexico, decades after the iconic giant of the skies was wiped out there.
Wallace and colleagues found the egg March 25 in an abandoned eagle nest on a cliff in the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park, located in the arid interior of the Baja California peninsula more than 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to see where the situation is going,” said Wallace, who works for the zoological society‘s center for Conservation and Research for Endangered Species. The society also runs the San Diego Zoo and its wild animal park.
A type of vulture, the condor scavenges dead fish and animals — as coastal population of seals and otters declined, so too did the bird. The use of poison to kill California‘s grizzly bears in the 1800s also devastated numbers and lead shot remains a potential source of poison. Hunting, egg collecting, and power cables were also blamed for hurting the creature‘s numbers.
Thanks to a captive-breeding program, numbers recovered to a worldwide total of about 280. More than 100 of these fly free in the skies above parts of California, Nevada and Utah. Working with the Mexican government, biologists reintroduced captive-bred birds to Mexico in 2002.
Weighing up to 26 pounds and with a wingspan of almost 10 feet, the California condor is one of the world‘s largest birds. Another species of condor, found in the Andes, is also under threat but its numbers are in the thousands, Wallace said.
Conservation and Research for Endangered Species, http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/
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Vultures breed in captivity to beat annihilation
2 Apr, 2007 l 2030 hrs ISTlNeha Shukla/TIMES NEWS NETWORK
LUCKNOW: A commonly sighted bird till a decade ago, vulture is nowhere to be seen now. However, the first chick to have born in a captive breeding centre in India has sent the hopes soaring for the near extinct species of the bird.
The Oriental white-backed vulture chick that hatched at the breeding centre in Pinjore, Haryana, belongs to one of the three Asian vulture species facing the threat of extinction. Asian vultures have declined tremendously over the years, “by some 99 per cent”, say scientists.
“This is the most precious new year gift from the Nature to vulture conservation. The egg was laid in November and since then, we have been waiting and hoping. This success shows that we have got the conditions right, so now we can plan ahead towards breeding many more,” shares Vibhu Prakash, principal scientist for vulture breeding programme, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
Indian sub-continent is home to nine species of vultures. Out of which the white-backed vulture (Gyps Bengalensis), long-billed vulture (Gyps Indicus) and slender-billed vulture (Gyps Tenuirostris) are the rarest. The IUCN World Conservation Union has classified all the three Asian vulture species as critically endangered.
The first sign of the rapid vulture decline appeared at the Kaladeo National Park in Rajasthan. And by start of 2000, there were almost no breeding pairs left, says BNHS official adding, “It was then that extensive survey was done and found that in many places the birds were completely missing.”
Leaving aside natural reasons, what came out behind the rapid decline of the bird is a drug called `diclofenac’ which is given by vets to cattle to treat Mastitis, limps and other disorders. And vultures preying on carcasses get infected with it. As a result, the bird suffers from kidney failure, visceral gout and dehydration and dies within few days.
“Vultures are declining by 22 to 48 per cent each year in India. And the reason is their feeding on carcasses of livestock treated with the drug Diclofenac shortly before death,” says Chris Bowden, head of the Vulture Conservation Programme, Royal Society for Protection of Birds.
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Can Captive Breeding Rescue Vultures from Extinction?
“In concept it is very simple. In practice it takes a lot of time,” Watson said. “We are talking a minimum of 20 years, more like 30 years, of effort. And it’s not cheap.”
Estimated costs for the project run as high as one million U.S. dollars each year. Watson said that while such funding is not yet secured, conservationists have gotten the governments of India, Pakistan, and Nepal to commit to species restoration.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is working in India with the Bombay Natural History Society and the Haryana state government to expand a vulture care center in the town of Pinjore. The center is designed to look after sick and injured birds and to include a captive-breeding program.
Additional support for the expansion effort comes from the United Kingdom-based Institute of Zoology and the U.K. National Bird of Prey Trust.
Pain said three aviaries large enough to hold 20 birds of each of the three species are currently being built at the facility. Plans call for further expansions.
The United Arab Emirates’ Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency has offered to host 25 breeding pairs of each species for Pakistan and Nepal for a few years, until those countries develop local facilities and expertise for captive breeding.
Recovery Possible?
According to Watson, the chances of a successful recovery for the Asian white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture are good, assuming that captive breeding populations can be quickly established. He is more concerned about the slender-billed vulture.
“There are so few individuals left of this species that to my knowledge, no one knows if they are even breeding at this point. So chances of collecting enough birds for a successful captive-breeding effort are much reduced,” he said.
According to Pain, if the international bird-conservation community works together and successfully implements a captive-breeding program, the vultures can be saved. “I don’t think it will be easy, but it’s certainly possible,” she said.
Meanwhile, the impact of the vulture decline is already being felt throughout the subcontinent. Rotting carcasses left uneaten by vultures pose a health hazard. Such carcasses are linked to the spread of diseases such as anthrax, according to the conservationists.
Other animals, such as rats, cats, and dogs, are filling the niche once filled by vultures. Wild dog populations in particular have increased substantially, leading to an increase in the spread of rabies and physical attacks on people.
Given the proven ability to bring vultures back from brink of extinction, Watson said action must be taken: “In this day and age of rapid species extinction, it is exceedingly foolish to let a species go extinct when there’s something you can do about it.”
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Last Updated: Monday, 8 January 2007, 18:17 GMT
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Chick success for Asian vultures
Conservationists hope the vulture chick will be the first of many
Conservationists are celebrating the arrival of the first oriental white-backed vulture chick to be born in captivity in India.
The bird belongs to one of three species of Asian vulture that are listed as critically endangered.
Populations in the wild have crashed because they eat carcasses containing traces of the drug diclofenac.
The use of the anti-inflammatory drug in the region is being phased out but it could take 10 years, scientists say.
Dr Vibhu Prakash, principal scientist for the vulture breeding programme, said: “This is the most precious new year gift from nature to vulture conservation.”
The egg was laid in November and the centre’s staff had been waiting and hoping ever since, he added.
“This success shows that we have got the conditions right, so we can plan ahead with confidence.”
Soaring death toll
We have to measure all of our successes against the backdrop that we are still talking about the extinction of the vultures
Nick Lindsay,
Zoological Society of London
The breeding centre, based in Pinjore, northern India, is run by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), and is supported by Indian government departments and organisations, including the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Nick Lindsay, ZSL’s head of international zoo programmes, said the society had been heavily involved in the centre since the late 1990s.
“It was established with a UK government Darwin Initiative grant, when the cause of the decline in vultures was still being investigated,” he said.
The centre shifted its focus from research to breeding once it was discovered that diclofenac, a drug widely used by vets in the region to treat cattle, was the main reason for the vultures’ deaths.
The link was firmly established in 2004 when tests on captive vultures fed carcass flesh traced with the drug produced symptoms that were strikingly similar to those witnessed in sick birds in the wild.
Mr Lindsay said the centre’s work concentrated on the three species most seriously affected by diclofenac: the oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis), the long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris).
In the past 15 years, population losses of more than 95% have been reported in these birds.
‘Worrying scenario’
Although India, Pakistan and Nepal were taking steps to phase out the use of the drug, Mr Lindsay said the birds’ battle for survival was far from over.
Vultures used to be a more common sight in the skies
“We have to measure all of our successes against the backdrop that we are still talking about the extinction of the vultures,” he warned.
“The communities that use this drug can be remote; cattle are literally found in their millions and people care very much for their well-being, so the drug is still being widely used because it is a very effective treatment for the cattle.
“If you take all those different factors, it creates quite a worrying scenario.”
But he added that there were some projects on the ground that were helping to take the drug out of circulation.
In Nepal, conservation groups were visiting pharmacies and clinics located within areas used by vultures and swapping supplies of diclofenac with a bird-friendly replacement, meloxicam.
“This sort of thing might be possible in Nepal because it is a much smaller country than India and the problem is not as extensive,” he suggested.
“But even then it is going to be a struggle because the range of these birds is so vast.”
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So we are not alone in the problem , the world has the same problem, are we going to take that as an advantage or are we gonna start dismantelling and disbandoning Zoroastrian system that were passed on to us.
How can Zoroastrianism survive if Zorastrian Practises are being disbandened . How can something be what it is without its core.
We have leaders who want to close down fundamental rites, open up the agiaries , sell of prime property that is capable of solving employment hurdles within the community , that can aid in further business development like the Parsi lying in Hospital
Pessimism has taken over optimism on our leaders, is this a case of pessimism to suit certain groups!
Can Dr Vibhu Prakash’s report on sucessfull vulture conservation projects be highlighted. Also one would like the report he submited for vulture aviary project at doongerwaadi to the BPP to be amde public!.
Vultures are sucessfully bred in captivity all over the world including India.