Animals  
Vultures
by Sonali Patnaik

Among all the species of birds, vultures play a very important role in protecting the environment. The vultures consume dead animals and by doing so help prevent diseases that could wreck havoc on Earth. Any threat to the bio-diversity causes the rapid decline in the population of vultures. Thus the ornithologists are trying to find out all the causes behind the dwindling population of vultures.

Vultures have bald heads, devoid of feathers which help the vultures in quick and efficient cleaning. The Parsi community doesn’t believe in burning or the burial of dead bodies but in sky burial. They try to help vultures by offering them the dead bodies. If these birds go extinct then the dogs and rats will eat these carcasses and will become wild and will become the cause of many diseases.

There are basically two kinds of vultures:

1. Old World Vultures
2. New World Vultures

One of the major cause for the extinction of vultures is poisoning. When vultures eat dead animals having Diclofenac in their bodies, they die of kidney failure.

Sometimes because of their large bodies, vultures collide with the high tension power lines and die.

Some people even kill vultures for making traditional medicines.

We can protect vultures by adopting the following steps:

• We can save the vulture from extinction by organizing vulture breeding programs.
• By banning DDT, HCH and other organic chemicals.
• The Veterinary Council should use a substitute drug for Diclofenac.

December 3, 2006

Image under license with Gettyimages.com

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