Earlier this year, the RSPB’s Mary Davies and Jake Zarins were lucky enough to be in Nepal to witness the final release of White-rumped Vultures from Bird Conservation Nepal’s captive breeding centre. What better way to celebrate the International Day of Biological Diversity (22 May) than to hear from Mary and Jake as they discuss how this event was a fitting conclusion to over 20 years of effort – and a milestone for vulture conservation in Nepal and the region.
In March, people gathered from near and far in Nepal’s famous Chitwan National Park to witness a significant moment in Nepal’s exemplary efforts to save vultures from extinction. With our partners we have developed the short film linked below to showcase this important conservation milestone. Please do watch and share it to spread the word about this fantastic story. To find out more about the years of work that led up to this moment, read on.
Disappearing vulturesThe story began around thirty years ago when the disappearance of vultures in south Asia first began to be noticed. Having been widespread and numerous, vultures were vanishing from where they had once been plentiful. Scientists discovered that the veterinary use of a drug (diclofenac) was the major cause of these declines. This drug, which is very much like Ibuprofen, was used to treat poorly cows for almost every imaginable illness. If these cows died and were then eaten by vultures who traditionally fulfilled this role, the diclofenac in the carcass would cause the vultures to suffer kidney failure and die. The use of the drug and resulting problem was so widespread that 99.9% of the population of one species, the White-rumped Vulture, disappeared. In total, a terrifying 40 million birds disappeared in a matter of 10 years!
Extinction seemed imminent and so bringing birds into captivity was a vital step to prevent the birds from disappearing altogether. Breeding centres were established in Nepal and India and the complex and ground breaking task of breeding vultures in captivity mastered.
White-rumped Vulture numbers dropped by 99.9% but thanks to dedicated conservation work the tide is turning. © Deu Bahadur Rana.
Restoring safe environmentsMany years of hard work by the teams on the ground have followed, both in breeding up captive populations and by working with the Government and other key stakeholders to restore a safe environment for vultures in the wild. The RSPB provided funding and supported the programme through the guidance of RSPB scientists and technical experts, and in Nepal, thanks to decisive government action, diclofenac has almost completely disappeared and numbers of wild vultures are steadily increasing.
In Nepal, thanks to decisive government action, diclofenac has almost completely disappeared and numbers of wild vultures are steadily increasing. © Sachin Ranade.
So, in March the last remaining 10 captive-reared White-rumped Vultures from the Nepal breeding centre were all released, having been tagged and marked. In addition, 10 more wild-caught White-rumped Vultures were similarly tagged and marked to further the understanding of what birds are doing in the wild and to continue to monitor threats.
Our colleague, Chris Bowden, RSPB Vulture Programme Manager, who also watched the release sums up the experience: “It was such an exciting morning seeing those birds come out one by one and joining the wild birds…The work here in Nepal has demonstrated that by removing diclofenac we really can get recovering vulture populations.”
This was the seventh and last vulture release in Nepal, bringing the total number released to 69. These birds are surviving well and have even started breeding, so bolstering the population further.
The RSPB’s Chris Bowden speaking at the vulture release event in Nepal. The releases marked a milestone for vulture conservation in Nepal and the region.© Ankit Joshi.
Signs of recoveryThis release event was a hugely celebratory moment which highlights the wider success of the ongoing programme run with great commitment by our partner Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN). Surveys are indicating that wild populations of White-rumped and Slender-billed Vultures are slowly but steadily recovering in Nepal, and diclofenac is almost completely gone from the environment in the world’s first Vulture Safe Zone. There are still concerns: other vulture toxic drugs are increasingly available; and the use of poison baits can be locally catastrophic for vultures. However, the event should be seen as a great success for this conservation programme involving species that underwent truly catastrophic declines. BCN, together with their associated partners, have been exemplary in delivering this work, and as RSPB we are proud of our support of this work over the past 20 years.
Continue reading• Saving species and habitats in the UK and further afield in 2022• Crossing borders and continents for conservation – the story of the Egyptian Vulture• International Vulture Awareness Day
Want our blogs emailed to you automatically? Click the cog in the top right of this page and select 'turn blog notifications on' (if you have an RSPB blog account) or 'subscribe by email'.