This presentation tells you about the present situation of White rumped vulture with reference to South East Asia (specially Pakistan) and its conservation status, reasons for its decline and future prospects without vultures.

1. White Rumped
Vulture
(Gyps bengalensis)
Hafiz Umair Masood Awan

2. Questions Addressed
Why the vultures are extinguished?
Causes of the extinction?
Measures to stop the causes of the
extinction?
Proposals to conserve the vulture?

3. Taxonomy
Common English Names: Asian White-backed Vulture, Oriental
White-backed Vulture, White-backed Vulture, White-rumped
Vulture
Spanish Name: Buitre Dorsiblanco Bengalí, Buitre Leonado
Bengalés

4. Why important for Us?

5. Importance
Ecological
1. Nutrient Cycling:
rapidly dispose of large
carcasses (OTHERWISE
IT TAKES 3-4 TIMES)
2. Keep environment
clean
3. Anthrax-Kill Bacteria
Economical
1. They remove dead
carcasses, which can
pose a health risk to
humans and livestock
2. In South Africa with
advent of the National
Lottery.
Cultural
1. eco-tourism value
(Europe, Asia and Africa)
2. Members of the
Parsee religion in India
do not believe in burying
or burning their dead;
instead, they leave them
out for vultures to
consume.
3. The ancient Egyptians
worshipped the birds.

6. For traditional medicine or fetishes in Africa.

7. Fast Facts
 The vulture is mainly a scavenging bird
and eats mostly carrion (Environmental
and Social impacts).
 A group of vultures is called a wake.
 They also have a bald head for sticking
their head into the carrion.
 Nest in tall trees or cliffs, often near
urbanized areas. Usually, the male gathers
the twigs and the female arranges them to
build the nest.

8. Fast Facts
Asian vultures were once ubiquitous in South
Asian cities.
Their decline has dealt a blow to India's small
Parsi ethnic minority.
White-rumped vultures are now down to fewer
than 10,000 birds.

9. Geographical Range
Probably
Extant(Non
Breeding)
Native Countries
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar,
Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
and southern Vietnam.
Possibly
Extinct
Probably
Extant(Resident)

10. Historical and Present Conservation
Status
Year 1990
2000-2010

11. So Fast Declination!
Oriental white-backed vultures in India could now
be down to 11,000 from tens of millions in the
1980s.
Long-billed and slender-billed vultures have
dropped to around 45,000 (2000-2007) and 1,000
birds (Year 2009) respectively from 88,650 birds.
To cause such a declination just one in 760
livestock carcasses need contain diclofenac
residues.
The decline of three Asian vulture species has been
quicker than that of the dodo.

14. Robert Koeing (2006)/Vol 312
Science Mag

15. Why So Fast Decline rate?
Changes in human consumption.
Improved deceased livestock management.
Avian malaria
Pesticide Use (To kill wandering dogs),…..BUT
MAINLY due to
Veterinary drug diclofenac.

16. Conservation Planning
 Vulture restaurants can be extended. (Like combodia)
Vulture restaurants are increasingly used as ecotourism attractions
in parts of the species's range, particularly Cambodia, to raise
awareness and fund supplementary feeding programmes and
research (Masphal and Vorsak 2007).
 Captivity Breeding
“They take about six to seven years to mature. Then they pick a
lifetime partner. They lay an egg a year and then the pair spends
time rearing it,” Ms Khan said. (Ms Uzma Khan, Director Biodiversity
WWF-Pakistan)

17. Social Element (Government
and People)
To involve local community
Socioeconomic surveys in Nepal have shown that local people are strongly in
favor of vulture conservation because of the associated ecological services
that vultures provide (Gautam and Baral 2003).
But sometimes to persuade governments is not so easy!
It took a year for the conservationists in India to convince the Prime Minister.
At the second meet of the National Board for wildlife, a session dominated by
the tiger crisis on March 17 last year Dr. Manmohan Singh offered lifeline to
the vultures by announcing that diclofenac would be phased out in six
months. (Source-The Indian Express)

18. Economic and Environmental
Element
In 2006, the Asian governments have banned the use
of diclofenic drug.
After the ban on diclofenac sodium, two more drugs, equally fatal to
vultures, Iboprufen and Aceclofenac, were already out in the markets. (Ms
Uzma Khan, Director Biodiversity WWF-Pakistan)
NOW WHAT TO
DO?
Meloxicam, can
be used instead.
“Only in perfect conditions (or diclofenac-free zones), it would take almost
50 years to stabilise the population of the white-backed vulture in Pakistan”

19. Future without Vultures?
Vultures are at the top of the food chain, so if their numbers are declining,
it is a sign that something is off balance.
Vultures can eat anthrax infected flesh without apparent harm.
Increase
of
carcasses
remaining
to
feral
dog
populations, leading to an
increase in the number of feral
dogs, which transmit rabies to
human populations.

20. References
 Anon. 2003. Vulture death mystery explained? The Babbler: BirdLife in Indochina 2(2): 7.
 Gautam, R.; Tamang, B.;Baral, N. 2003. Ecological studies on White-rumped VultureGyps bengalensis in
Rampur valley, Palpa, Nepal.
 Masphal, K.; Vorsak, B. 2007. Vulture restaurants across Cambodia. The Babbler: BirdLife in Indochina: 24.
 Poharkar, A.; Reddy, P. A.; Gadge, V. A.; Kolte, S.; Nurkure, N.; Shivaji, S. 2009. Is malaria the cause for
decline of the Indian White-backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis)? Current Science 96(4): 553-558.
 Prakash, V et al. 2007. Recent Changes in population of resident Gyps vultures in India. Journal of the Bombay
Natural History Society, 104 (2), May-Aug 2007.
(http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/IndianVultureDeclines_tcm9-188415.pdf)
 http://www.wmenews.com/newsletters/File/Volume-2/Issue-3/support/Pakistans%20Gyps%20vulture.pdf
 http://www.wcs.org/saving-wildlife/birds/white-rumped-vulture.aspx
 http://www.wwfindia.org/help/our_online_campaigns/vulture_problem.cfm
 http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/full/106003374/0
 http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=106003374
 http://www.wcs.org/news-and-features-main/last-bastion-asian-vultures.aspx
 http://orientalbirdimages.org/birdimages.php?action=birdspecies&Bird_ID=872&Bird_Image_ID=43404&Bird_F
amily_ID=
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Vulture
 http://www.myspace.com/hopeful_honey/photos/4383893
 http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/188408-extinct-in-10-years
 http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/a-restaurant-for-vultures/article3497590.ece
 http://www.vulpro.com/publications/Science-VultureArticle.pdf
 http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/09/vulture_awareness.html
 http://save-vultures.org/Documents/Hla%20et%20al%20Vultures%20in%20Myanmar%20BCI%202011.pdf