Six Critically Endangered White-rumped Vultures Gyps
bengalensis which were reared at Vulture Conservation and Breeding Center were
released on the 9th of November 2017 in the first event of its kind in South
Asia. Seventeen free-ranging White-rumped Vultures fitted with satellite transmitters are
providing us with valuable data on their movements and favourite locations. (11
wild birds, plus the 6 released).
The objective of the project is twofold: evaluate Nepal’s
vulture conservation breeding and release programme; and evaluate the safety of
Nepal’s Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ). The breeding programme is set to have its
second good year for producing fledgling white-rumped vultures; and the VSZ is
set to be the first region that could be declared free from diclofenac and
other vulture-toxic NSAIDs.
So far, the 17 vultures have clocked approximately 9
vulture-years between them – that is, the combined time each vulture has been
providing data in years. The first map shows movements and where they have been
during this time
Each dot is a location where a vulture was recorded.
Different coloured dots represent different vultures. The dots are clustered
because the vultures tended to use the similar sites. Except for one vulture
(light brown dots), which surprised us by travelled 900km west, along the edge
of the Himalayan foothills, to beyond Shimla in Himachal Pradesh and back
again. This wild vulture was actually sighted in Uttarakhand at carcass dumps
by the vulture team there (a great case of international collaboration in
December, with BCN sending the coordinates and these being checked on the
ground), and this shows what free-ranging vultures can do and why conservation
actions need to happen across borders and vast areas. But this vulture’s
behaviour is unusual compared to the other vultures that were tagged.
The second map zooms in on the cluster of dots.
Closer inspection of the cluster reveals different vultures
behaving differently. For example, dark blue, red and dark brown spend
considerable time in the hills; light purple has roamed west and spent
considerable time in northern India; and light blue and yellow prefer to travel
no further than the Lumbini vulture safe feeding site (South Nepal). The white
dots show the location of five of Nepal’s six Vulture Safe Feeding Sites; and
the blue diamond (extreme right) shows the location of Nepal’s Vulture
Conservation Breeding Centre. Wild and captive vulture were all tagged and
released at the Nawalparasi vulture safe feeding site ie release site (the
white dot furthest to the right). Perhaps oddly, the vultures did not venture
very far to the east of the site so far.
One key finding from this work (although perhaps not so
surprising) is the number of locations of birds across the border in Uttar
Pradesh (UP), India, and this has prompted some excellent transboundary
linkages, with locations being visited by the BNHS/UP Forest Department teams,
and discovering new feeding sites and potential breeding sites that were not
previously known from the UP VSZ! Within Nepal, the ground truthing team
discovered some new breeding colonies and important foraging sites while
following these tagged vultures.
The third map zooms in on the Nawalparasi feeding site.
The white dot is not shown, but the feeding site is where
the coloured dots are tightly clustered. Only the wild vultures are shown here.
The spread of coloured dots shows their movements to and from the feeding site.
These vultures happily returned to the feeding site on several occasions
despite having once been trapped and tagged nearby.
The fourth map is the same as the third, but the released
vultures are shown instead of the wild vultures.
This is in fact the total extent of the roaming of the 6
released vultures since November 2017. None have so far moved more than 2km.
With food being regularly supplied at the feeding site, these vultures do not
have any major impetus to range further away. At least, this allows us to
closely monitor these vultures and we assume they will soon travel further.
Wild vultures are presently feeding chicks and relying on the regular food
supply at this feedings site, but once the breeding season has ended we are
considering temporarily stopping feedings to encourage the released vultures to
explore more of the provisional Vulture Safe Zone.
The big vulture telemetry project is the collaborative
effort of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Chitwan
National Park, Bird Conservation Nepal, the Royal Society for the Protection of
Birds, the International Centre of Birds of Prey, National Trust for Nature
Conservation and the Zoological Society of London.
* Maps show the borders of Nepal and its districts.
Districts in bright green are within the Vulture Safe Zone; whereas those in
dark green are Diclofenac-free Districts. North of Nepal is the Tibetan Plateau
of China; East and West of Nepal are the Himalayan Mountains of India and
Bhutan; and South of Nepal is the Gangetic Plains of India.
Our thanks to BCN, RSPB, Krishna Bhusal & Toby Galligan
for providing this exciting interim update. Also to Khima Balodi, to Corbett
National Park staff, to Alka Dwivedi and Vibhu Prakash (BNHS) and especially to
the BCN ground truthing team Devendra Chapagain, Ankit Bilash Joshi and Ishwari
Chaudhary.