

Treating Delhi's Birds of prey - yareally
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/05/pictures-treating-delhi-birds--2014515142722529736.html

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fallinghawks
Those black kites must tame easily. I think it's funny and awesome they have a
healthy one sticking around for the free handouts -- though not really
surprising. (I know several falconers who released their trained birds near
their homes, and the birds have stuck around and come in for a free handout
once in a while.)

The birds here look kinda ratty on the feather tips, but it doesn't look like
parasite damage but rather urban dirt, like pigeons get. I'm glad these guys
are doing this. Despite the way the place looks, they are doing it as right as
they can be given their limited resources.

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gambiting
"There are not many places that the carnivorous birds can get treated at as
many bird hospitals in the city do not tend to them due to religious reasons."

Why oh why in the 21st century "religious reasons" are valid reasons for
anything. This makes me equal parts sad and angry.

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smackay
Kind of shocking since treating the birds are in the people's best interests
as the vultures and kites clean up all the corpses lying around.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis)

~~~
yareally
_Nine species of vulture can be found living in India. Today, most of them are
in danger of extinction.[1] This has not always been the case. In the 1980s
there were as many as 80 million white-rumped vultures (Gyps bengalensis) in
India. At that time, it was the most numerous species of raptor in the
world.[2] Today, however, its population numbers only several thousand._

Wow, that's really sad that it can go from being that numerous to nearly
extinct in 20 to 30 years.

~~~
SalesZip
It was due to a medicine given to cattle.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis)

~~~
yareally
Yeah, seems very similar to what we went through with DDT and animals in the
1950s and 1960s. Hopefully India has its own Rachel Carson advocating for the
birds and the environment.

