The incubation took place over a period of 57 days and the young ones will be reintroduced to their mother after five months.
For the first time in India, four eggs of the long-billed vulture, India’s most endangered bird, were artificially incubated successfully by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at its three vulture breeding centres.
The incubation took place over a period of 57 days and the young ones will be reintroduced to their mother after five months.
According to BNHS scientists, the chicks have already started flying at the age of 108 days.
“This is the first time that four eggs have been artificially incubated and 16 fully grown vultures have been bread in captivity,” said Ian Barber, international officer, Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB), partner of BNHS for the Important Bird Area (IBA) programme.
The process involves removing the first egg laid by the vultures and incubating them artificially. The vultures, known to lay eggs again in 3-4 weeks, will be allowed to incubate these eggs themselves.
This way, annually two nestlings can be produced by a pair, instead of one. This technique has been successfully applied in many endangered species, including cranes.
Over the past 20 years, 40 million Indian vultures have been wiped out by the use of a veterinary anti-inflammatory drug Diclofenac.
Experts say that currently there are around 10,000 vultures left in the Indian subcontinent, with less than 200 in Maharashtra.
“Around 99% of the vulture population was wiped out when the vultures fed on the carcass of cattle which had Diclofenac in their system. Within 48 hours, the birds died due to kidney failure. At this rate, within the next 10 years, vultures will be extinct in India,” said Raju Kasambe, project manager, IBA programme, BNHS.
Currently, the three Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres of BNHS in Haryana, West Bengal, and Assam have a population of 249 with 10 chicks.
“We aim at breeding vultures in captivity and eventually releasing them in the wild when the legal ban on the use of Diclofenac is effectively implemented. However, with the government’s support, we are looking for sponsors from within the country to help conserve the vultures,” said Barber.
BNHS spends Rs70 lakh per year in providing food to the vultures. “Funding for the project comes from outside the country. We need more involvement from Indian organisations,” Barber said.
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