Breeding and mortality of Oriental White-backed Vulture Gyps bengalensis in Punjab Province, Pakistan

Abstract

SummaryPopulations of Oriental White-backed Vulture Gyps bengalensis and Long-billed Vulture G. indicus declined in India between the mid 1980s and late 1990s. Regional reports from India described declines of 95-100% across a wide area. This study was conducted to investigate the breeding success and pattern of mortality in two vulture colonies (Dholewala and Changa Manga) within Punjab Province, Pakistan between December 2000 and June 2001. Breeding success was found to be 62% in Dholewala and 59% in Changa Manga. A total of 668 sick and dead vultures were collected of which 591 were less than one month post mortem. No significant variation was found in the weekly mortality rate of adult and subadult vultures during the study period spanning winter through summer. A peak in mortality rate was observed during late April and early May that corresponded to mortality of newly fledged juveniles. Minimum annual mortality rate in the adult breeding population was calculated to be 11.4% and 18.6% in Dholewala and Changa Manga respectively. In a subsample of dead vultures (n = 185) visceral gout was found in 80% of adults, 63% of subadults, 19% of juveniles and 13% of nestlings. These mortality rates were consistent with a rapid population decline. Results imply that the mortality factor responsible for the decline in Gyps vultures described in India is also present in Pakistan and will potentially lead to a population decline of a comparable magnitude.

The conservation of Accipitridae vultures of Nepal: a review

“…The three Gyps species have rapidly declined by more than 97% since the mid 1990s (Gilbert et al 2002;Cuthbert et al 2006;Arshad et al 2009). Recent data suggests that Red-headed Vultures are likely to decline by at least 90% by end 2016 .…”

Gout in Egyptian Vulture (Neophron Percnopterus): A Case Report

“…Similar cases of articular gout had been reported in chicken and turkey [11][12][13]. Though, visceral gout had been reported in Himalayan griffon vulture, White backed vulture [5,8,9], no records of articular gout in vulture could be found from the available literature. Therefore, it seems that the present case is the first report of articular gout and visceral gout in Egyptian vulture.…”

“…Articular gout is characterized by accumulation of urates in the synovial capsules and tendon sheath of the joints particularly in the foot and hock regions [4]. Visceral gout was reported to be a common finding of vulture postmortem examination in India [5][6][7][8][9]. Reports on articular gout in vulture are limited.…”

Population viability analysis of Critically Endangered white-rumped vultures Gyps bengalensis

“…Two widely used methods for estimating the abundance of white-rumped vultures in southern Asia are counts of active nests and road transect surveys (Gilbert et al 2002, Prakash et al 2003, 2012, Chaudhary et al 2012. By counting the number of active nests, the first approach underestimates abundance because it ignores the subadults and juveniles present in a population.…”