Indian vulture crisis update – Diclofenac still widely used

Diclofenac vials still designed for cows, not humans - Courtesy of The Bombay Natural History Society 

February 2012. Nationwide road surveys in India, initially conducted in 1991-1993 and repeated in 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007, revealed that, by 2007, Asian white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) had fallen to 0.1% of its numbers in the early 1990s, with populations of Indian vulture (Gyps indicus) and Slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris) having fallen to 3.2% of their earlier level. The last nationwide survey in India was undertaken in 2007

A new nationwide census in India was undertaken from March to June 2011, which followed the same methods and transects as previous surveys beginning in 1992. The results indicate that populations of all three species of vulture remain at very low levels, but that the rate of decline has slowed and might even have reversed for Gyps bengalensis (details to be published in 2012).

However, the rarity of vultures means that estimates of the most recent population trends are necessarily imprecise, so slow declines may be continuing. The degree to which the decline rate of Gyps bengalensis has slowed is broadly in accord with the effects on population trend expected from a reduction in the prevalence and concentration of Diclofenac in carcasses of domesticated ungulates since the ban on veterinary Diclofenac was introduced in 2006.

These results are encouraging and suggest that conservation actions implemented in India are beginning to take effect on the remaining population of vultures. However, further action to remove all remaining Diclofenac in the veterinary sector must be enforced in order to allow numbers to increase.

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/diclofenac-vultures.html

Endangered vultures still in peril as pharmacies flout deadly drug ban

But best-ever year at captive breeding centres as number of fledged young almost doubles September 2011: More than a third of Indian pharmacies are flouting a ban on a veterinary drug that has brought the country's vultures to the brink of extinction, according to a new study.

The manufacture and sale of diclofenac for veterinary use has been illegal since 2006, but farmers and livestock owners are purchasing human diclofenac illegally in conveniently large bottles to treat their cattle.

This is difficult to prevent, given the wide availability of the drug. Some of the other diclofenac on sale was formulated for veterinary use and had been manufactured illegally after the 2006 ban.

Dramatic decline in numbersDiclofenac is responsible for all-but wiping out three species of Gyps vultures, endemic to South Asia. The population crash of these vultures was first noted in the late 1990s. Since then their rate of decline has been steeper than nearly any other bird species, including the infamous dodo.

The Indian Government banned diclofenac veterinary use in May 2006 with bans in Nepal and Pakistan the same year. Further measures in India, in August 2008, placed additional restrictions prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of diclofenac and its formulations for animal use with contravention being punishable with imprisonment.

The research to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2006 ban was conducted by surveys in more than 250 veterinary and general pharmacy shops in 11 Indian states from November 2007 to June 2010. The surveyors asked if they could buy non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for treating cattle. Diclofenac was recorded in 36 per cent of shops asked.

Banned drug still for sale in conveniently large quantitiesLead author and principal conservation scientist at the RSPB, Dr Richard Cuthbert, said: ‘The ban is still quite easy to avoid because human formulations are still freely for sale in large vials which are convenient for use on large animals such as cattle and clearly not suitable for human use. Preventing the misuse of human diclofenac for veterinary use remains the main challenge in halting the decline of endangered vultures.'

While the research shows that there is still widespread availability of diclofenac after the ban, encouragingly it also shows an increase in meloxicam (found in 70 per cent of pharmacies), a drug that has very similar therapeutic effects on cattle as diclofenac but which has been proven to be safe to vultures.

Dr Vibhu Prakash of the Bombay Natural History Society, and co-author said: ‘Firm action at Government level against pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical shops that are breaking the law by manufacturing and selling diclofenac for veterinary use is urgently needed if we are to save vultures from extinction.'

RSPB breeding success with 'double clutches'In contrast to the disheartening results from this research, the RSPB is happy to report the most successful year yet at the Indian captive breeding centres as the number of fledged chicks is up almost double on last year. Eighteen vulture chicks have been successfully reared in captivity in 2011 - the largest annual total to date.

Another first for the captive breeding centre this year is a number of ‘double clutches', meaning some pairs produced a second egg and chick, as the first was removed, hatched in incubators and reared by the highly trained BNHS staff.

The Bombay Natural History Society, with support from the RSPB and newly-formed consortium Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) manages three conservation breeding centres in India where 271 vultures are housed and successful breeding of all three species has now occurred.

Chris Bowden, the RSPB's head of vulture programme and SAVE spokesperson said: ‘Three species of south Asia's vultures are heading for extinction so we have to act now. With the latest success at the breeding centres we're more confident than ever that there will be sufficient numbers for reintroduction to the wild as soon as it's safe for them, but until diclofenac stops being produced and sold for veterinary use we cannot guarantee these birds have any future in the wild.

'We're on the right track, but there is a long way still to go.'

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/vulture-drug-ban%20.html

German police train vulture 'detectives' to find bodies

2 June 2011

German police are trying out a new weapon in the fight against crime - vultures that can find hidden corpses.

Three feathered detectives - called Sherlock, Miss Marple and Columbo - are being trained in Walsrode bird park in northern Germany.

The birds' keen eyesight and acute sense of smell might make them as skilful as their fictional namesakes.

But worryingly Sherlock sometimes prefers to hunt on foot, rather than scan the ground from above.

Police used a piece of shroud from a mortuary for the training exercise, German media report.

The vultures are thought to be better than sniffer dogs at finding bodies when a large area has to be searched and the terrain is difficult, for example if it is densely overgrown.

But the experiment raises ethical concerns because of the risk that a vulture could start pecking at a dead body, the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper says.

This week Miss Marple and Columbo, from a zoo in Austria, joined Sherlock for the exercise in the reserve, north of Hanover.

Police are using three birds because the vultures prefer to roam big areas as a group.

"The vultures may work much more effectively than sniffer dogs," said a Hanover police officer, Rainer Herrmann.

"There's a lot of interest in this. We've had inquiries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13629772

2 June 2011 Last updated at 14:52

German police train vulture 'detectives' to find bodies

The vultures' habits are not a perfect fit for the job of detective

German police are trying out a new weapon in the fight against crime - vultures that can find hidden corpses.

Three feathered detectives - called Sherlock, Miss Marple and Columbo - are being trained in Walsrode bird park in northern Germany.

The birds' keen eyesight and acute sense of smell might make them as skilful as their fictional namesakes.

But worryingly Sherlock sometimes prefers to hunt on foot, rather than scan the ground from above.

Police used a piece of shroud from a mortuary for the training exercise, German media report.

The vultures are thought to be better than sniffer dogs at finding bodies when a large area has to be searched and the terrain is difficult, for example if it is densely overgrown.

But the experiment raises ethical concerns because of the risk that a vulture could start pecking at a dead body, the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper says.

This week Miss Marple and Columbo, from a zoo in Austria, joined Sherlock for the exercise in the reserve, north of Hanover.

Police are using three birds because the vultures prefer to roam big areas as a group.

"The vultures may work much more effectively than sniffer dogs," said a Hanover police officer, Rainer Herrmann.

"There's a lot of interest in this. We've had inquiries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland," he said.

Vulture arrested for spying

Saudi Arabian security services have captured a vulture suspected of being a Mossad spy sent over by Israel.

The bird, which was carrying a GPS transmitter and a tag from Tel Aviv University, strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, according to a report in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.

Residents and reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper the matter seemed to be linked to a "Zionist plot" and swiftly alerted security services. The bird has since been placed under arrest.

The accusations went viral with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming "Zionists" had trained the birds for espionage.

Israeli authorities said the bird's activities were innocent and that it was part of a long-term study of the migratory habits of the vulture.

The incident comes amid growing paranoia among Israel's neighbours over the nation's growing military might.

An Egyptian official reportedly claimed a shark that attacked tourists off the coastal resort of Sharm el Sheikh was acting on behalf of the Israeli spy service.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Vulture_arrested_for_spying

Vulture arrested for spying

Saudi Arabian security services have captured a vulture suspected of being a Mossad spy sent over by Israel.

The bird, which was carrying a GPS transmitter and a tag from Tel Aviv University, strayed into Saudi Arabian territory, according to a report in the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.

Residents and reporters told Saudi Arabia's Al-Weeam newspaper the matter seemed to be linked to a "Zionist plot" and swiftly alerted security services. The bird has since been placed under arrest.

The accusations went viral with hundreds of posts on Arabic-language websites and forums claiming "Zionists" had trained the birds for espionage.

Israeli authorities said the bird's activities were innocent and that it was part of a long-term study of the migratory habits of the vulture.

The incident comes amid growing paranoia among Israel's neighbours over the nation's growing military might.

An Egyptian official reportedly claimed a shark that attacked tourists off the coastal resort of Sharm el Sheikh was acting on behalf of the Israeli spy service.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Vulture_arrested_for_spying

Poisoning drives vulture decline in Masai Mara, Kenya

Vulture populations in one of Africa's most important wildlife reserves have declined by 60%, say scientists.

The researchers suggest that the decline of vultures in Kenya's Masai Mara is being driven by poisoning.

The US-based Peregrine Fund says farmers occasionally lace the bodies of dead cattle or goats with a toxic pesticide called furadan.

This appears to be aimed at carnivores that kill the livestock, but one carcass can poison up to 150 vultures.

Munir Virani, who is director of the Peregrine Fund's Africa programmes, has called for use of furadan to be banned in the region "to preserve these keystone members of the scavenging community".

"People may think of vultures as ugly and disgusting, but the birds are essential for the ecosystem," he says.

Their taste for carrion actually makes them the landscape's clean-up team - ensuring the region is not littered with bodies, helping contain the spread of disease and recycling nutrients.

The results of this latest survey of vultures are published in the journal Biological Conservation.
The terrible consequences of a vulture population crash have already been demonstrated during a case that became known as the Asian vulture crisis.

Populations of Gyps vultures in particular, in South Asia, crashed by more than 95% over just a few years in the 1990s, primarily because farmers treated their cattle with the pain-killing drug diclofenac.

The pain-killer, it turned out, was lethal to the vultures, which fed on the dead cattle.

As well as driving three species of vulture to the brink of extinction, the crisis provided a huge amount of food for wild dogs, which moved in to take the place of the birds.

This had the devastating side-effect of increasing the spread of rabies. And Dr Virani is concerned that a similar situation could happen in Kenya.

The solution in Africa though, could be much more straightforward than in South Asia.

By boosting the public image of vultures in the country, the Peregrine Fund hopes to stop people from carrying out these "revenge poisoning attacks".

Between 2003 and 2005, Dr Virani and his colleagues drove across the expansive Kenyan landscapes, counting vultures.

He and his colleagues then compared the results of these surveys with the results of surveys carried out in the 1980s. The comparison revealed a 60% decline in vultures.

Corinne Kendall's work has taken this survey a step further.

Ms Kendal is a researcher from Princeton University in the US, who has also been working with the Peregrine Fund - tracking and monitoring the birds to investigate the extent of the poisoning.

"We attached the GPS trackers like little backpacks," she tells BBC News. "There's a piece that sits on their chest and two loops around each wing."

"But we had four out of 16 vultures killed in the first year and three of those were confirmed cases of poisoning.

"From a sample of 16, it's difficult to know how representative that is, but it's extremely worrying."

The transmitters also revealed that most of the poisoning happened outside of the reserve, which is a protected area.

"If they stayed in the Mara Serengeti they would hardly ever get poisoned," says Ms Kendall.

"But, based on the transmitters, it appears that the vultures that use the Masai Mara have very large home ranges - from 30,000 to 80,000 square kilometres, depending on the species."

And the birds can travel over 250km in a single day.

This means that poisoning in and around the Masai Mara could have an effect on the vulture populations, not just in other parts of Kenya, but in other countries in Africa.

Ms Kendall explains to BBC News that in the Mara ecosystem, the birds consume 70% of all available meat.

"If we lose vultures, there's no other animal that will be able to consume the volume," she says.

The reserve is a vast dining table for the birds, especially during the annual wildebeest migration, when 1.5 million of the animals march across the plains in search of grass.

"So without vultures, during the wildebeest migration you would have carcasses lying everywhere and you would see lots of disease spread," said Ms Kendall.

Under threat
In the last three months alone, Dr Virani says he has discovered six cases where vultures have been poisoned.

The Peregrine Fund has now recommend that three vulture species - the African white-backed, Ruppell's, and hooded vultures - be relisted as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, an internationally recognised compilation of threatened species.

"If we lost the vultures," says Dr Murani, "tourists would have to travel around the reserve with face masks on, because the stench from rotting wildebeest carcasses would be unbearable."


By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News


http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9290000/9290103.stm

Poisoning drives vulture decline in Masai Mara, Kenya

Vulture populations in one of Africa's most important wildlife reserves have declined by 60%, say scientists.

The researchers suggest that the decline of vultures in Kenya's Masai Mara is being driven by poisoning.

The US-based Peregrine Fund says farmers occasionally lace the bodies of dead cattle or goats with a toxic pesticide called furadan.

This appears to be aimed at carnivores that kill the livestock, but one carcass can poison up to 150 vultures.

Munir Virani, who is director of the Peregrine Fund's Africa programmes, has called for use of furadan to be banned in the region "to preserve these keystone members of the scavenging community".

"People may think of vultures as ugly and disgusting, but the birds are essential for the ecosystem," he says.

Their taste for carrion actually makes them the landscape's clean-up team - ensuring the region is not littered with bodies, helping contain the spread of disease and recycling nutrients.

The results of this latest survey of vultures are published in the journal Biological Conservation.
The terrible consequences of a vulture population crash have already been demonstrated during a case that became known as the Asian vulture crisis.

Populations of Gyps vultures in particular, in South Asia, crashed by more than 95% over just a few years in the 1990s, primarily because farmers treated their cattle with the pain-killing drug diclofenac.

The pain-killer, it turned out, was lethal to the vultures, which fed on the dead cattle.

As well as driving three species of vulture to the brink of extinction, the crisis provided a huge amount of food for wild dogs, which moved in to take the place of the birds.

This had the devastating side-effect of increasing the spread of rabies. And Dr Virani is concerned that a similar situation could happen in Kenya.

The solution in Africa though, could be much more straightforward than in South Asia.

By boosting the public image of vultures in the country, the Peregrine Fund hopes to stop people from carrying out these "revenge poisoning attacks".

Between 2003 and 2005, Dr Virani and his colleagues drove across the expansive Kenyan landscapes, counting vultures.

He and his colleagues then compared the results of these surveys with the results of surveys carried out in the 1980s. The comparison revealed a 60% decline in vultures.

Corinne Kendall's work has taken this survey a step further.

Ms Kendal is a researcher from Princeton University in the US, who has also been working with the Peregrine Fund - tracking and monitoring the birds to investigate the extent of the poisoning.

"We attached the GPS trackers like little backpacks," she tells BBC News. "There's a piece that sits on their chest and two loops around each wing."

"But we had four out of 16 vultures killed in the first year and three of those were confirmed cases of poisoning.

"From a sample of 16, it's difficult to know how representative that is, but it's extremely worrying."

The transmitters also revealed that most of the poisoning happened outside of the reserve, which is a protected area.

"If they stayed in the Mara Serengeti they would hardly ever get poisoned," says Ms Kendall.

"But, based on the transmitters, it appears that the vultures that use the Masai Mara have very large home ranges - from 30,000 to 80,000 square kilometres, depending on the species."

And the birds can travel over 250km in a single day.

This means that poisoning in and around the Masai Mara could have an effect on the vulture populations, not just in other parts of Kenya, but in other countries in Africa.

Ms Kendall explains to BBC News that in the Mara ecosystem, the birds consume 70% of all available meat.

"If we lose vultures, there's no other animal that will be able to consume the volume," she says.

The reserve is a vast dining table for the birds, especially during the annual wildebeest migration, when 1.5 million of the animals march across the plains in search of grass.

"So without vultures, during the wildebeest migration you would have carcasses lying everywhere and you would see lots of disease spread," said Ms Kendall.

Under threat
In the last three months alone, Dr Virani says he has discovered six cases where vultures have been poisoned.

The Peregrine Fund has now recommend that three vulture species - the African white-backed, Ruppell's, and hooded vultures - be relisted as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, an internationally recognised compilation of threatened species.

"If we lost the vultures," says Dr Murani, "tourists would have to travel around the reserve with face masks on, because the stench from rotting wildebeest carcasses would be unbearable."


By Victoria Gill

Science and nature reporter, BBC News


http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9290000/9290103.stm

Gay vultures split up by zoo to make babies

A zoo in Germany is planning to separate two gay vultures – then set them up with a female.

The same-sex couple, both aged 14, have spent the last few months building a nest together, according to officials.

Now, one of the two males is to be mated with a female vulture at a Czech zoo, said Dirk Wewers, curator at the Allwetter Zoo in Muenster which needs some baby vultures.

‘They weren’t happy as a gay couple anyway - the other vultures picked on them and stole their nest materials,' commented Wewers.

Gay groups have protested against the decision.

The case of the German vultures will remind eagle-eyed Metro.co.uk readers of last year's love triangle involving a couple of gay penguins and their foxy neighbour at San Francisco Zoo, no doubt.

In that instance, gay lovers Harry and Pepper - who had shared the same nest for six years and even raised an abandoned chick together - went their separate ways after Harry fell for his widowed neighbour, Linda.

His behaviour sparked outrage on the internet, with Linda branded a 'home wrecker'.


Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/847224-gay-vultures-split-up-by-zoo-to-make-babies#ixzz15M8V2W3T

Gay vultures split up by zoo to make babies

A zoo in Germany is planning to separate two gay vultures – then set them up with a female.

The same-sex couple, both aged 14, have spent the last few months building a nest together, according to officials.

Now, one of the two males is to be mated with a female vulture at a Czech zoo, said Dirk Wewers, curator at the Allwetter Zoo in Muenster which needs some baby vultures.

‘They weren’t happy as a gay couple anyway - the other vultures picked on them and stole their nest materials,' commented Wewers.

Gay groups have protested against the decision.

The case of the German vultures will remind eagle-eyed Metro.co.uk readers of last year's love triangle involving a couple of gay penguins and their foxy neighbour at San Francisco Zoo, no doubt.

In that instance, gay lovers Harry and Pepper - who had shared the same nest for six years and even raised an abandoned chick together - went their separate ways after Harry fell for his widowed neighbour, Linda.

His behaviour sparked outrage on the internet, with Linda branded a 'home wrecker'.


Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/847224-gay-vultures-split-up-by-zoo-to-make-babies#ixzz15M8V2W3T

Pilots on alert for high-flying vulture

By Avril Ormsby

LONDON | Thu Aug 19, 2010 10:50am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's air traffic controllers put pilots on alert this week after a vulture which can soar as high as 30,000 feet escaped from her handlers during a display.

Gandalf, a seven-year-old Ruppell's Vulture with a three-meter wingspan, has not been seen since she caught a warm thermal during a show at the World of Wings center in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on Tuesday.

Nats, Britain's air traffic control company, said it had made pilots aware of the possibility of seeing the bird, while the aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, said bird strike is a constant threat to aviation.

"She caught a nice thermal and was gone," Alan Galloway, director at World of Wings, told Reuters.

"I had a mixture of feelings. She was like a ballerina in the sky, changing from this big lumbering bird on the ground."

Most airborne collisions involve birds flying into engines, forcing some aircraft into an emergency landing.

In January last year, a US Airways crew ditched their plane in the Hudson River in New York, with no human fatalities, after both engines were effectively disabled by a bird strike.

Gandalf, originally from Africa, can fly for long periods, and could reach the European continent.

Sightings by members of the public have been reported in Inverness, in northern Scotland, to Cornwall in southwest England, but none has been confirmed.

Galloway said he thought it unlikely the bird would pose a threat to aircraft as she would be hungry, flying low in search of food.

A demonstration bird, she has been at World of Wings for six years.

"She's clever and quite charming, but temperamental and not everybody's cup of tea," he added.

(Editing by Steve Addison)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67I23O20100819

World Cup gamblers 'smoking vulture brains'

Gamblers seeking to beat the bookies are smoking dried vulture brains, believing it will give them the power to predict match results, it has been claimed.

Conservationists believe the growth of ‘muti’ magic in South Africa ahead of the World Cup has seen a surge in poaching of Cape vultures, already at risk from lack of food and poisoning.

‘The harvesting of the bird’s heads by followers of muti magic is an additional threat these birds can’t endure,’ said Mark Anderson, of BirdLife South Africa.

Steve McKean, from KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, who has been studying the decline of vultures due to muti magic, said: 'Our research suggests that killing of vultures for so-called "traditional" use could render the Cape vulture extinct in some parts of South Africa within half a century.

'In the worst case, the Cape vulture could be suffering population collapse within 12 years.'

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/829651-world-cup-gamblers-smoking-vulture-brains

Lotto vultures resort to bird-brained scheme

Mon Dec 28, 2009

The traditional medicinal practice of smoking dried vulture brains to induce a vision of winning lotto numbers is killing off the bird's population in South Africa, researchers say.

Scelo, a young healer in downturn Johannesburg's market for muti, or traditional medicine, says the birds are becoming more scarce.

"I only have one every three or four months," he said.

"Everybody asks for the brain. You see things that people can't see. For lotto, you dream the numbers."

Rolled into a cigarette or inhaled as vapours, vulture brains can also help at the horse races, boost an exam performance, or lure more clients to a business, according to believers.

Next to snake skins and ostrich feet, as well as donkey fat to chase away bad spirits, Scelo sells a small bottle with just a speck of ground brains for about 50 rand ($7.50).

The entire bird could go for 2,000 rand ($299).

Another traditional healer, speaking on condition of anonymity, says vulture bones or feathers can also be mixed with herbs to make medicines.

"We make the brain dry and mix it with mud and you smoke it like a cigarette or a stick. Then the vision comes," he said.

He prescribes mainly vulture heads, which he says bring visions of the future, endowing users with the bird's excellent vision that helps them fly out of nowhere to descend on carcasses.

According to experts, it is a belief shared along Africa's east coast, as well as in some west African countries.

A young Zulu named Mthembeni wanted to buy a blend of ground brains and beaks for his dogs, but he turned away, dismayed at the price.

"I put it on their nose. Then they can detect any strange presence from kilometres away," he said.

"It gives security to my family."

Extinction threat

At least 160 vultures are sold each year for muti, according to a study by two wildlife groups.

Researcher Steve McKean estimates that up to 300 vultures are killed by a variety of causes, especially in the eastern province of Kwazulu-Natal, where poaching still goes largely unpunished.

"Traditional use as it is currently happening is likely to render vultures extinct in southern Africa on its own within 20 to 30 years," he said.

"Vultures are protected by law."

Mr McKean said improved public awareness and a better understanding of the trade in the birds was needed.

Seven of the nine species of vulture are considered endangered.

Hunters shoot them, trap them or poison them with a pesticide called Aldicarb, which is deadly to humans, according to the group Ezemvelo Kwazulu-Natal Wildlife.

Scelo says he knows how to avoid the pesticide.

"The meat is blue when it's poisoned," he said.

Aside from hunters, vultures also face the threat of electrocution if they fly into high-voltage lines or drown in farm reservoirs, all the while coupled with a shortage of food and the loss of their habitat.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/28/2781643.htm

EU acts to save 'hungry vultures'

By Chris Mason
BBC News, Brussels

Farmers are to be allowed to leave dead livestock in their fields in parts of Europe - to help starving vultures.

MEPs voted for a change in the law after the hungry birds, most often found in Spain, had been spotted as far away as Brussels, scavenging for food.

The move allows farmers to leave dead livestock in their fields - providing it is deemed safe and hygienic.

Vultures are capable of stripping a dead cow or sheep carcass in a matter of hours.

Environmentalists describe the birds as "nature's cleaners".

But many vultures have been starving to death since European rules aimed at tackling mad cow disease forced all dead livestock to be cleared away.

This forced the birds to embark on some rather long-haul trips - one was even spotted recently perched on top of a bus shelter in Brussels.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8018115.stm