Endangered Asian vulture species are making a comeback thanks to an innovative restaurant chain across Cambodia that’s become the place to be seen for discerning consumers of carrion.
Called simply “vulture restaurants,” the eateries have been open since 2004 and, six years later, address the main threat to three species of vultures in Cambodia: limited food availability.
Uncontrolled hunting of wild animals is cited as one reason for the vulture’s lack of food. Tighter controls by farmers over livestock that used to roam freely, is another.
DECIMATED
In India, the same vulture species have been decimated by the drug diclofenac, used to keep livestock healthy, but toxic to the birds feeding on the carcasses.
The vulture restaurants were set up by three conservation groups — Birdlife International, the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Birdlife International says the population of the main three Gyps vulture species in parts of south Asia fell by more than 95 percent in just three years in the 1990s and are classified as critically endangered.
FOOD
Initially, one of the major problems was that scientists were unable to work out what was causing them to die off, but now that they’ve realized that their food was the issue, the vulture restaurants have helped redress the decline.
“The vultures are near extinction and we are trying to preserve them by giving them dead cows or buffalos each month,” said Net Norin, a staff member of Birdlife International.
The animal carcasses are left at certain sites for the vultures to feed on. Each site is supervised by rangers who monitor the vultures’ progress each month.
And these rangers say they’ve seen an increase in the number of vultures since the preservation project began six years ago, with 286 birds in June last year, up from 140 in 2004.
“The numbers have increased and the villagers received a lot of knowledge about preserving the vultures because they see more and more tourists coming to visit this area, which they benefit from,” Pich Bunnat from the Wildlife Conservation Society said.
The vultures’ nesting colonies are also protected, with local community members receiving a payment at the end of each month if vultures’ nests remain active.
DECLINE
The vulture population across south Asia has been in decline for decades.
In India, the decline is largely attributed to diclofenac, used in mammals as an analgesic and antipyretic but which is toxic to vultures.
The drug, however, is not used in Cambodia, which conservationists believe will give them a boost in their attempts to preserve the three main species — the white-rumped vulture, the slender-billed vulture and the red-headed vulture.
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
RSS