Raptor's Story

Being an animal lover and a vegetarian I am obviously opposed to any kind of hunting.  In particular I see no appeal in hunting for 'sport' although of course this is a widespread activity.  Certain kind of hunting are clearly wrong, for example trophy hunting for wild African animals (e.g. rhinos, elephants, big cats) is widely viewed as unacceptable, particularly as many of these animals are endangered.

Looking a bit closer to home, the opinions towards hunting of game birds are less firm.  After all, the species shot are common (e.g. grouse, pheasant) and often bred for this exact purpose.  This sport can be an important input into the economy, for instance on some estates people pay £175 for every 2 birds they shoot, as well as being ingrained into some societies.

Hen Harrier

However, a dangerous indirect threat arising from this sport in the persecution of raptors that occasionally prey on game birds.  Despite the majority of these raptors being legally protected from persecution, many a still poisoned and shot and this is a serious problem for species that are already suffering low population numbers.  Hen harriers are an example of one of these species as only 1% of their naturally occurring numbers are successfully breeding in grouse moors.  This species is one of the most threatened raptors in the UK with only 570 breeding pairs left.  Another critically endangered species suffering is the Golden eagle as only this month (19th December) another satellite-tagged bird was found poisoned on a moor that is intensively managed for grouse shooting.

Golden Eagle

Buzzards are a conservation success story in the UK as despite historical declines, they are now this country's most common raptor, with a population of 31,000 to 44, 000 breeding pairs.  They are still a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 2001 in order to maintain and perhaps even improve these numbers.  However, a shocking development occurred in May when Natural England issued its first license to destroy buzzard nests and move adults after requests from a pheasant shooting estate.  To make matters worse, research has indicated that buzzards play a minor role in pheasant losses as they only occasionally take young pheasants from breeding pens.  There are also alternative measures available to protect pheasant numbers such as providing more cover for young pheasants in release pens, visual deterrents to discourage buzzards and providing alternative food sources

I believe that this persecution of raptors is equally as unacceptable as ivory poaching of elephants and it needs the same level of attention to prevent further losses to our native birds.  All animals populations on this earth are precariously balanced due to their daily battles with human actions.  We cannot afford to abandon any of them, even if they are seemingly recovering as in the case of the buzzards, if we want to keep them in our world.

Buzzard

The vulture's story

As a conservationist I am often faced with shocking stories of species that are literally on the brink of extinction and I wanted to share one such story as I believe it needs all the recognition it can get.  This involves three species of Asian Vultures: oriental white- backed, slender billed and long billed vultures. All 3 are now critically endangered as their numbers have declined 97%, or 99.9% in the case of the oriental white-backed vulture in the last 10 years.  This is due to an unexpected culprit in the form of the drug diclofenac.  This is an anti-inflammatory drug used by farmers to treat their livestock and is unintentionally ingested by these vultures when they feed on the livestock carcasses.

White-backed vulture

Now, I understand that vultures do not inspire the most pleasant thoughts with many people as they are generally not the most aesthetically pleasing and their almost a symbol of death which is not exactly uplifting.  However, I personally disagree with this opinion as I believe it displays the dangerous concept of speciesism as seemingly more popular species are favoured even when their are others more desperately in need of our help.  Also, vultures contribute a very significant benefit to human societies and their decline is already beginning to have a negative impact.  For example, vultures are the natural caretakers of the environment and this prevents the spread of many diseases that would be a real threat to the poorer people in Asia.  One unprecedented example is there has now been a huge increase in the incidence of rabies, particularly in India.  This is because vultures compete with feral dogs for carcasses so without this source of competition populations of dogs have risen dramatically, along with the incidence of dog bites.

The economy is already taking a hit due to this decline in vultures, with the tanning and fertiliser industries being prime examples.  In a nutshell, more livestock carcasses have to be buried or incinerated as the vultures are not there to dispose of them naturally.  Therefore, less skins and bones are available for these industries.  A last note is that vultures draw tourists so the industry of ecotourism (sustainable tourism) will begin to suffer.

Thankfully, the campaign SAVE (Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction) is combing of the efforts of many organisations to help these vultures.  These efforts have led the governments of India, Nepal and Pakistan all banning the use of diclofenac and a safe drug meloxicam has been produced as a replacement.  

Long-billed vulture

In addition, captive breeding centres have been set up and resulted in 30 chicks fledging to date. However, these chicks cannot be released into the wild as diclofenac is still very present despite all this work.  The main issues this campaign faces is that people in Asia are either unaware of the effects diclofenac can have or they decided not to care.  Therefore, even though as always money is an important factor in recovery of species (such as in supporting captive breeding programmes), this case has highlighted the need for education.  This education needs to encompass a wide range of people in Asia including farmers, children, conservation students etc so that so that the importance of these vultures is understood and these species can begin to recover. Beyond this, these vulture's story should become a worldwide message of equality and the fact that every species deserves to be saved.