Vulture numbers are cut to the bone

[Eugene]

Vulture numbers are cut to the bone

Extinction fears for a scavenger vital to preserving ecosystems

Robin McKie, science Editor
Sunday July 16, 2006
The Observer

South Africa's national lottery is claiming an unlikely victim: vultures. Local people -
convinced these birds' superb eyesight gives them the gift to see the future - are eating
vulture meat to acquire the power of clairvoyance.

And they are not alone. In neighbouring Zimbabwe, voters fearful of supporting the losing
side in recent elections ate vulture meat, mainly heads, talons, eyes and hearts, believing
this would enable them to pick the winning party. Then there has been the rise of traditional
medicines, for which vulture parts are highly valued, as well as soaring cases of poisoning
and shootings by starving farmers in East and West Africa.

In addition, in south Asia over the past five years, the use of the painkiller diclofenac
in cattle has wiped out three species of vulture and reduced the remaining two species to a
few dozen pairs of breeding birds. The drug, it was discovered recently, destroys the birds'
kidneys.

In short, the vulture - the ultimate scavenger, for ever associated with pitiless opportunism
- has been sent spiralling towards extinction, say ornithologists. 'Something very, very bad
is happening to the vulture,' said Guy Rondeau, of Afrique Nature International. 'There has
been an almost total collapse in numbers in many parts of the world.'

<snip>

Full article: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1821631,00.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. as their world goes crazy, people resort to superstition to explain things

very sad, especially for the vultures. :(

[drm604]

2. What's going on with the cattle

that all of that painkiller is necessary?