International Vulture Awareness Day

Today, 5 September 2009, is International Vulture Awareness Day. If you're not aware of the reasons vultures are vital, or not aware of the threats to their survival, check out the site or go to BirdLife International's page about the importance of vultures. Throughout much of Asia, vulture populations have declined catastrophically, largely because of their susceptibility to veterinary use of the drug diclofenac; now, diclofenac residues in livestock carcasses are beginning to decimate vultures in parts of Africa.

This a hooded vulture, Necrosyrtes monachus, next to the carapace of a green turtle on the coast of Ghana in April 2007. The photo first appeared on Pohanginapete in a tongue-in-cheek (the pun is unavoidable) post about the joys of eating offal.

Updates:
1. Charlie, at 10,000 Birds, has posted a wonderfully informative article about what's happening to vultures. Fortunately, as he concludes, it's "not all doom and gloom". Highly recommended.
2. If you think vultures are ugly, you might change your mind after seeing Gwendolen's photo of a Rüppell's griffon vulture.
3. As I've noted above (and Charlie elaborates on), much of the problem arises from veterinary use of diclofenac. Meloxicam appears to be a vulture-safe alternative to diclofenac; however, it's considerably more expensive. Moreover, in Africa vultures are also threatened by off-label use of the extremely toxic pesticide furadan, as well as (you guessed it) habitat destruction.
4. To end the updates on a much lighter note: Corey, also at 10,000 Birds, has collated a handful of wonderful quotations about vultures.

All content (other than the IVAD logo in this post) © 2009 Pete McGregor