JATAYU

2003-04

2

A Newsletter of the Project; Conservation of Critically Endangered Gyps Species of Vulture in India A Joint Project of

Bombay Natural History Society

Editorial

Forest Department of Haryana

e are happy to bring out the third edition of Jatayu - the annual newsletter of the vulture conservation project devoted exclusively to the conservation of the critically endangered Gyps species of vultures.

Funded by

Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species UK Published by

Vulture Care Centre

Editor

Vibhu Prakash

Inside 1

Editorial

2

Vulture Care Centre Vultures at the Centre Highlights of the Activities at the Centre.

Necropsies of Vultures at the Centre Tagging of Vultures

3

Annual Nation-wide Vulture Surveys Monitoring of Vulture Nesting Colonies Project Staff Recruitment

4

South Asian Vulture Recovery plan Workshop The Last Word Thank you Vultures Carcass Submission Protocol

Vulture Care Centre

W

The year 2003-2004 was very eventful for the vulture conservation. Dr. Lindsay Oaks from Washington State University working for the Peregrine Fund, a U. S. based non-governmental organization and his team of investigators, published his interesting findings in Nature, the most prestigious scientific journal from U.K.. He found a strong positive co-relation between presence of the NSAID diclofenac in the tissues of vulture and occurrence of visceral gout.

The visceral gout was found to be the most consistent finding in the necropsies of vultures both in India and Pakistan. He could also experimentally produce similar symptoms as were seen in the wild.

The concentration of diclofenac as low as 0.22 mg/gm of body weight was found to be lethal to vultures.

The vulture tissues examined for the presence of diclofenac in India following the finding of the Peregrine Fund in Pakistan, showed presence of diclofenac in most of the tissue samples. A strong positive co-relation was confirmed between occurrence of gout and presence of diclofenac.

The drug diclofenac was introduced as a veterinary drug in India in late eighties and is now widely available across the country. It is considered to be very effective and has about Rs. 20 crore market, about 5% of the total veterinary medicine market in India. So, diclofenac does appear to be a major killer of vultures in South Asia. A mathematical model

developed by Drs Rhys Green and Ian Newton shows that only 0.4 % cattle carcasses need to have lethal levels of diclofenac to cause the level of population crash witnessed in Gyps species of vultures in India.

This seems to put to rest the thought that very few cattle in the country are treated and it was unlikely that diclofenac could be the cause of decline in vulture population.

Based on the information available on causes of vulture mortality and declines, a Vulture Recovery Plan was released by Mr. S. C. Dhesi, Principal Secretary and Finance Commissioner, Forests, Government of Haryana, in presence of Mr. Bhisht, I.G. Forest, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India on 16th February 2004.

The recovery plan discusses various aspects of decline in vulture populations in south Asia.

The plan was prepared and approved by top forest officers of various states, Scientists of the IUCN Species Specialist Group, Royal Society for Protection of Birds, Zoological Society of London, The Peregrine Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society.

Bombay Natural History Society, Zoological Survey of India, Wildlife Institute of India and Central Zoo

Authority.

The major recommendations of the plan are to ban the use of diclofenac as a veterinary drug and initiate captive breeding programme at least at 6 locations in South Asia to save the vultures from imminent extinction.

I hope the Indian authorities will take immediate action to implement the plan, as at the moment extinction of three species appears imminent.

The research in finding the causes of vulture mortality should however, continue as diclofenac toxicity could not still fully explain the chronic sickness reported in vultures in India before the mortality. Diclofenac toxicity appears to be acute and causes mortality within hours of poisoning. All the vultures which were affected, recovered when they were given water and food and were kept in cool and undisturbed area of the vulture care centre.

The very interesting find of novel Herpes virus in vultures should be followed up. The important find of the virus concentration around the central nervous system appears to be significant. It is interesting to see if the virus causes gout or is a cause of mortality.

Dr. Vibhu Prakash

Jatayu Vulture Care Centre Highlights of the The work continued in full swing at the centre and additional facilities were developed for finding out the causes of vulture mortality.

A

dditional facilities were developed in the laboratory.

Two more rooms were added to the existing structure. Facilities were developed for extraction of diclofenac from the tissues of

Necropsies of Activities at Centre: Vultures at the Centre

S

oon after it was found that diclofenac could be a cause of vulture mortality, the extracts from the vulture tissues archived at the centre were utilized for determination of presence of the drug diclofenac in the tissue of the vultures.

The drug was extracted from various tissues, mainly, kidney, liver and muscles and its concentrations were estimated with the help of HPLC MS MS at the University of Aberdeen, U.K.

vultures and cattle by installing equipment like fume hood, vortex shaker, blood mixer and tissue homogenizer.

Aviaries

The facilities in the post mortem room have also been improved by tiling the table and airconditioning the room.

A set of eight quarantine aviaries were constructed with the help of additional funding from National Birds of Prey Trust, UK.

One more -18ยบ C freezer was installed for storing vulture tissue samples. The CCTV monitors were kept in the laboratory along with the computer system.One room

Four aviaries face one side and they open into a common gallery. The other four face in the opposite direction and open in a common gallery.

was utilized for hematology and biochemistry.

Vultures at the Centre

S

ixteen vultures were added to our collection at the Vulture Care Centre between 1 April 2003 and 31 March 2004. 12 were Long-billed and 4 White-backed. All the 12 Long-billed were collected very sick but all of them recovered.

Three of the Long-billed were rescued by Mr. Neelim Khaire of Pune Snake Park and were sent to Pinjore Centre. One of the Long-billed was collected from Gurgoan in Harayan by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was handed

over to the centre. Eight Long-billed vultures were collected sick by BNHS researchers from Bayana. All the vultures were fledglings. Of the four White-backed Vultures, one was sent

by Dr. Batwe, Veterinary Office of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai. The rest of the three vultures were collected from Haryana as nestlings. All together there are 26 vultures at the centre. 11 Whitebacked, 14 Long-billed and 1

Himalayan Griffon.

The samples were also sent to National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Training, Mohali, Department of Pharmacy, Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani and C. B. Patel Research Centre, Vile Parle, Mumbai. 72% of the vultures had detectable diclofenac in the tissues.

F

ortunately, none of the vultures brought sick to the centre have died so far. The centre gets dead vultures from across the country through the network of BNHS members and volunteers.

So far 15 necropsies have been carried out since the centre was established.

11 necropsies were carried out this year, which included three Long-billed, and eight White-backed Vultures. The vulture carcasses were brought from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Only five vultures died of visceral gout and rest due to other reasons. Mr. Kartik Shastri, our member volunteer from Gujarat was instrumental in sending us the vulture carcasses from Gujarat

The cattle tissues were also randomly collected from different parts of the country and the extracts from the tissues were analysed at various laboratory mentioned above.

More than 10% of the cattle tissue samples analysed had diclofenac residue.

Tagging of Vultures

All the vultures are wing tagged for easy identification. The tag is put on the forewing and is secured in the patagium with an applicator, in a very similar fashion as it is done to ear tag goats and sheep.

Jatayu Annual Nation-wide Monitoring of Vulture Nesting Colonies Vulture Surveys

T

he surveys were carried out at identified locations, throughout the country, to get an idea of the status of the population of vultures. The surveys were carried out between March to June 2003. Data on population changes across a wider area were obtained by repeating a road transect survey of vulture populations carried out across a large area of northern India in 1991 to 1993 The repeat surveys were carried out during 2000,2002 and 2003. The minimum decline in Gyps bengalensis numbers in India during the period 1992-2003 was 99.7% and 97.4% for Gyps indicus/tenuirostris (Prakash et al. in prep) This corresponds with a minimum estimated rate of decline of 34% per year for G. bengalensis and 27% per year for the G. Indicus/ tenuirostris group. In the most recent census, there is evidence that the rate of declines may be increasing with a measured 81% decline between 2002 and 2003 in G. bengalensis, a 59% decline in G. indicus and a 47% decline for G. tenuirostris (Prakash et al. in prep.). The road transect surveys only provide evidence about the declines in the three resident Gyps species; the evidence available for several other scavenging species is sparse.

T

he best way to find out whether a population is doing well or not is by studying its nesting success. The project has been monitoring ten colonies of Whitebacked as well as Long-billed Vultures in different parts of the country. The project is monitoring the nesting of White-backed Vultures in Chiplun in Maharastra, Ahmedabad in Gujarat,Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, Badisher in Haryana, Wynad Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala and of Long-billed vultures in Jodhpur, Sariska, Bayana in Rajasthan, Satna and Panna in Madhya Pradesh. The colony monitoring is done by both Project biologists and volunteers.

The following volunteers are monitoring various vulture-nesting colonies:

Mr. Koustubh Sharma + Monitoring Long-billed Vulture colony at Panna National Park, Madhya Pradesh Mr. Dilsher Khan + Monitoring Long-billed vulture colony at Satna, Madhya Pradesh

The results of these monitoring activities have shown some geographic and temporal variation in rates of decline and breeding success, although in all places the overall demographic trends follow those of the nation-wide surveys. In addition to providing demographic data at a finer scale than nation-wide surveys, colony monitoring has been useful for obtaining vulture carcasses for pathological investigations and for raising the profile of vulture conservation at the local level.

Project Staff

M

r. R. D. Jakati, Chief

Wildlife Warden, is the

project leader and is

supported by his team of Mr. Sada Ram, Wildlife Inspector and Mr. Rakesh Sharma, Forest Guard.

Mr. Sachin Ranade and Mr. S. Saravanan Research Fellows, Dr. Devojit Das, Project Veterinarian along with Dr. Vibhu Prakash, Project Manager form the research team of the project. Mr. Rajendra Singh Negi, Adminstrative Assistant, Mr. Jai Kishan and Mr. Sagun Chand vulture keepers, Mr. Mahindra Singh and Mr. Rajesh Kumar, drivers are the support staff of the Project.

+ Mr. Biswarup Raha Monitoring Long-billed and Whitebacked vultures at Nashik, Maharashtra. + Mr. Vishwas Katdare Monitoring White-backed vulture colony at Chiplun, Maharashtra. + Mr. Kartik Shastri Monitoring White-backed vulture colony at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. + Mr. Sashi Kumar Monitoring Wynad Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala for White-backed Vultures

All three-vulture species were continuing to decline at the time of the most recent surveys in India, (2003). Populations are now declining by more than 50% per year for some species and locations and the rate of decline have increased in recent years.

Recruitment

D

r. Devojit Das was appointed as a full time veterinarian for the centre. Dr. Das is a veterinary graduate from Guwahati Veterinary College. Dr. Yedra an expert veterinarian from Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London gave Dr. Das intensive training in vulture care and captive management, for over three months. Dr. Andrew Cunningham on his frequent visits helped in honing Dr. Das's skills in veterinary care of vultures. Dr. Das will shortly receive advance training in U.K. All efforts are being made to give the best training to staff to maintain the international standards at the centre.

Important Visitors to the Centre

T

he centre was honoured by the visits of Dr. Simon Lyster, Advisor from Darwin Initiative, Mr. Dhesi, IAS, Finance Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Forests, Government of Haryana, Dr. Rick Watson, Peregrine Fund, Dr. Lindsay Oaks, Washington State University, Dr. Pritipal Soore, IUCN/SSC Re-introduction Specialist group, Mr. M. C. Malakar, Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam and Mr. Aseem Srivastava, Dy. Inspector General of Forests, Government of India.

Jatayu South Asian Vulture Recovery Plan Workshop Thank you

The Last Word

B

e extend a very sincere “Thank You� to Mr. Neelim Khaire, Pune Snake Park, Dr. Batwe, Veterinary officer, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai and Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Haryana for very kindly sending the sick vultures for investigations. We thank all our member volunteers for carrying out the colony monitoring for the project.

We are grateful to the officials and experts who participated in the preparation of Vulture Recovery programme.

ased on the information generated during the project and information collected by various other organizations, a south Asian vulture recovery plan was released on the 16 February 2004 at Panchkula, Haryana by Mr. S. C. Dhesi, IAS, Principal Secretary and Finance Commissioner, Government of Haryan in presence of Mr. Bhisht, IFS, Inspector General of Forests, Government of India. This Recovery Plan was the outcome of an international workshop funded by the U.K. Government's Darwin Initiative and was held at Parwanoo, Himachal Pradesh, from 12-14 February 2004. The Bombay Natural History Society and the Haryana forest department convened the workshop. Delegates to the workshop included government representatives, conservation scientists, pathologists, experts in the management of captive animals and their re-introduction to the wild and representatives of nongovernmental organisations concerned with nature conservation.

The objective of the workshop was to devise a plan of action to save three species of vultures resident in South Asia, Gyps bengalensis, G. indicus and G. tenuirostris, from global extinction and to restore populations in the wild as much as possible of their recent geographical range. The workshop was a response to the catastrophic collapse of populations of the three vulture species during the past decade. The meeting brought together interested parties from countries comprising most of the geographical range of south Asian Gyps vultures (Cambodia, India, Pakistan and Nepal were represented).

The Plan identified the most likely causes of the recent declines, the main threats to vultures in the wild,

now and in the future, and a program of action designed to prevent extinction and remove the causes of endangerment from the environment. The program identified in the Plan is long-term and is intended to be employed in a flexible and adaptive way.

Recommendations are made for regular reviews of scientific evidence and progress with conservation action and for updating of the Plan.

The major recommendations of the plan was 1] to immediately restrict the use of diclofenac as a veterinary drug 2] to set up conservation breeding facilities at least at six different centres in south Asia where 25 breeding pairs of each of the three species, White-backed, Longbilled and Slender-billed should be kept.

The investigations into the cause of the vulture decline are reliant on a supply of freshly dead vultures for postmortem examination. We have developed a vulture carcass submission protocol for submission of vulture carcasses for pathological examination.

The protocol is pasted below.

Please do all you can to help us obtain these necessary carcasses ... At the project office.

W

Vulture Care Centre

Vulture Carcass Submission Protocol

I

n order to carry out the necessary investigations to determine the cause of the vulture declines, it is vitally important that freshly-dead vultures are available for detailed post mortem examination and sampling for diagnostic tests. Therefore, biologists are encouraged to inform Dr. Vibhu Prakash of any sick vultures in their area and to collect any freshly dead vultures that may be found. If they are to be useful for examination, the carcasses must be fresh, and kept that way, until the time of examination by storage on ice, as follows.

Put the carcass into a strong plastic bag and seal this bag to make it watertight press out any air in the bag before sealing it.

Repeat step 1. so the vulture is now within two strong, sealed plastic bags.

r Location where carcass was found

Place the bagged vulture on ice packs* in a thermo cool box and cover the carcass as much as possible with ice packs*.

r Date and time of day carcass was found and collected

Seal the thermo cool box by taping the lid on tightly with strong sticky tape. Tape all the way around the join between the lid and the box.

r Any other relevant information e.g. state if vulture was known to have been sick (and for how long) before it died.

Immediately contact Dr. Vibhu Prakash (BNHS Pinjore 01733232924/264426) to arrange for the carcass to be sent by the fastest way possible to the Vulture Care Center, Pinjore. The cost for sending the carcass will be borne by BNHS. Remember - time is of the essence.

To create ice packs, fill plastic bottles with water, replace the lids securely and place into a deep freezer. Please note, if you are monitoring vultures and likely to find carcasses, it is a good idea to have quite a number of ice packs readymade in a freezer to avoid delays in submitting carcasses for post mortem examination.

Include with the carcass (by placing in a sealed envelope taped to the outside of the thermo cool box) details of the carcass as follows: r Species of vulture r Age of vulture if known

PLEASE DO INFORM THE LOCAL WILDLIFE/FOREST DEPARTMENT AFTER COLLECTING THE CARCASS AND OBTAIN PERMISSION. PLEASE INFORM US IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY

Please contact us on the following addresses: B-2, Forest Complex Pinjore - 134102, Haryana

F-23, HMT Colony Pinjore - 134101, Haryana

Phones : 01733-264426, 232924, 240305, 09816076469

Further information on Darwin Vulture Project can be obtained from Dr. Vibhu Prakash at the Project Office or Project Website at: www.vulturerescue.org