Authorities investigating the invention of 14 useless vultures in a feeding zone that’s meant to be protected for the scavenging birds have discovered that they died from consuming poisoned bait left for different wildlife.
The preliminary inquiry by the Bangladesh Forest Division and the IUCN, the worldwide wildlife conservation authority, decided that native individuals had intentionally poisoned a goat carcass and left it out for feral canine and jackals that had been attacking the group’s livestock.
The invention of the useless vultures started with a white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) that IUCN researchers had fitted with a satellite tv for pc tag in October 2022. On March 22 this 12 months, they seen that the fowl had been transmitting its place from the identical location for about 15 days. This prompted them to ship a rescue group to the placement, the place they discovered the vulture useless and hanging between two timber. A wider search yielded two extra useless vultures, additionally hanging from timber.
The group widened their search to the areas of Kalar Bazar, Raipur, Buriganga and Moulovibazar, all inside the so-called vulture-safe zone of Sylhet division. In all, they recovered 14 vulture carcasses (12 white-rumped vultures and two Himalayan griffons, Gyps himalayensis).
This incident is especially extreme for Bangladesh’s white-rumped vultures, whose complete estimated inhabitants within the nation was simply 260 in 2015, when a nationwide motion plan to avoid wasting the birds was drawn up.
In line with the IUCN, it appeared locals within the space had just lately misplaced a number of goats to feral canine or jackals, prompting the residents to retaliate by making an attempt to poison them. A number of canine and jackals wound up feeding on the poisoned bait and dying, which additionally seems to be the case for the vultures, mentioned A.B.M. Sarowar Alam, mission supervisor on the IUCN’s Bangladesh workplace.
Native authorities have since taken measures to forestall such actions, together with issuing bulletins at native mosques throughout Friday prayers, Alam mentioned.
Vulture conservation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is residence to 6 vulture species. The white-rumped and slender-billed vultures (Gyps tenuirostris), each critically endangered, are thought of residents within the nation, whereas the 4 different species — Himalayan griffon, cinereous (Aegypius monachus), griffon (Gyps fulvus) and Indian (Gyps indicus) vultures — are migratory.
Vulture hotspots in Bangladesh are Sylhet division within the nation’s northeast, Mymensingh division within the north, and elements of the Sundarbans within the south, the world’s single largest mangrove forest.
Throughout South Asia, vulture populations plummeted within the Nineties because of the widespread use of the cattle painkiller diclofenac. Birds that consumed the carcasses of cattle that had been handled with the drug died, and in 2011 the Bangladesh authorities banned using diclofenac for cattle.
One other cattle painkiller, ketoprofen, can be identified to be dangerous to vultures, and was banned in vulture-frequented areas of Bangladesh in 2021.
In 2015, the federal government drew up its 10-year Nationwide Vulture Conservation Motion Plan, aimed toward halting the decline in vulture populations by a variety of measures. These embrace establishing vulture-safe zones, the place using substances that may poison vultures is strictly regulated; coordinating transboundary conservation points with governments of neighboring vulture vary states; and banning cattle remedy that could possibly be dangerous to vultures, mentioned Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, an official with the Bangladesh Forest Division.
He added that authorities have been making an attempt to implement all of the measures talked about within the motion plan, which was ready in collaboration with the IUCN.
Below the motion plan, the forestry ministry has already established two protected zones, in Sylhet and Khulna divisions. These zones are residence to giant populations of white-rumped vultures in addition to two giant vulture-breeding colonies. Mixed, these zones cowl an space of 47,380 sq. kilometers (18,294 sq. miles).
The motion plan has additionally spawned vulture conservation groups made up of members of native communities residing close to the breeding colonies. These groups assist shield the vulture breeding grounds and key habitats, mentioned Alam, who oversees these initiatives on behalf of IUCN Bangladesh.
This text by by Abu Siddique was first printed by Mongabay.com on 28 April 2023. Lead Picture: A Himalayan griffon (Gyps himalayensis). Picture by Sprint Huang by way of Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
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