A while back, I wrote about how an electronic transmitter attached to a single Swainson's hawk in 1994 was instrumental in discovering that massive numbers of "our" raptors were being accidentally poisoned by farmers in Venezuela after they migrated south for the winter.
Now, it turns out that a 97% decline in Oriental white-backed (Gyps bengalensis), long-billed (Gyps indicus), and slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostris) vultures In India can be traced to a another accidental poisoning, this time from a livestock anti-inflammatory drug called diclofenac, which is consumed by vultures when they eat a carcass.
The good news is that diclofenac has now been banned in India.
The bad news it that the vulture population in India is now so low, that it will take a long time to recover (and a captive breeding program) to bring them back. In the interim, the population of wild dogs -- which can carry rabies -- is on the rise.
The worst news is that diclofenac is now a generic drug, and is being marketed in Africa where it may quickly push the Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) into extinction and further threaten Rueppell's Griffon vulture (Gyps rueppellii) the African white-backed vulture (Gyps africanus) and and Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus).
For the record, American vultures are not closely related to their African and Asian counterparts; out vultures and condors (family Cathartidae) may be more closely related to the stork, heron or ibis. In any case, they do not seem to be impacted by diclofenac; a small blessing.
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