Drugs Given to Livestock Are Devastating Vulture Populations in India

The Bombay Natural History Society estimates that over the past two decades the populations of oriental white-backed vultures, slender-billed vultures, and long-billed vultures have declined by as much as 97 percent. The major culprit has been a drug given to sick livestock. The vultures feed on the carcasses of dead animals and the residue of the drug has proven to be toxic to vultures. India has banned the drug.

But now a drug that has been used to replace the banned substance has also been found to have entered the vulture’s food chain and is suspected of also being toxic to the birds.

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