Vultures feed on carcasses laced with poison, intended to kill jackals or other predatory carnivores. Meanwhile, there is a dramatic increase in secondary poisoning. All of these things have been reduced by human activity. They also need an abundance of prey species since they rely more on chance than their own hunting skills to eat.
Vultures need large ranges to scan for food and undisturbed areas in which to nest. The near-extinction of vultures has caused disease in the country, as rats and dogs moved in to take their place-spreading pathogens that would have otherwise been destroyed by the vultures. India banned the use of diclofenac for veterinary use in 2006, but it’s still widely used. And though they boast perhaps the world’s most efficient digestive system, vultures cannot digest the drug. After the animal died, the vultures would eat the corpse. Indians revere their cows, and when a cow showed signs of pain, they treated it with diclofenac. It was finally discovered that they had been killed by a drug called diclofenac (a pain reliever along the lines of aspirin or ibuprofen).
By 2008, 99.9 per cent of India’s vultures were gone. But by 1999, their numbers had dropped due to a mysterious kidney ailment. Only 20 years ago, India had plenty of vultures-flocks so enormous they darkened the skies.
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