Egyptian vulture

Posted on October 22, 2019 by IAS Leave a comment

The Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) among the globally threatened vulture species found in India.
The species is popularly known as safed giddh (white vulture) in Hindi.
According to BirdLife International, the present global breeding population of the Egyptian vulture is estimated to be 12,000 to 38,000 individuals.
Habitat: They build their nests on ledges, in caves, on cliffs , crags and rocky outcrops, but occasionally also in large trees, buildings (mainly in India), electricity pylons and exceptionally on the ground.
Food: The species rarely hunts for food — they mostly feed on dead carcasses of animals. They also eat carrion, tortoises, organic waste, insects, young vertebrates and eggs.

IUCN status:

Egyptian vultures are classified under the ‘Endangered’ (EN) red list of the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN).

Threats to their population:

Conservation Actions:

Globally various conservation actions like Monitoring programmes, supplementary feeding and campaigns against illegal use of poisons, including awareness-raising, are in place.
The veterinary drug diclofenac has been banned by the Indian government. Diclofenac leads to renal failure in vultures (when they eat dead animals) damaging their excretory system.
In many countries vultures have been fitted with satellite-tags to study juvenile dispersion, migratory movements and wintering areas.
Method of captive-breeding is carried in Italy.

Distribution:

BirdLife International:

It is the world’s largest nature conservation partnership.
It has 120 BirdLife Partners worldwide, one per country or territory and growing.
It strives to conserve birds, their habitat and global biodiversity.
It is working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources.

Section : Environment & Ecology

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