Journalism of Courage
High on a cliff in the Western Ghats where vultures build their nests, ornithologists have recorded for the first time a Bonelli’s eagle preying on a vulture’s egg. This unusual incident has led researchers to set up a 24X7 live video camera as part of efforts to conserve this fast-dwindling species.
Indian vulture Gyps Indicus is a cliff-nesting species. Their population globally has crashed by 95 to 99 per cent in the past decade due to several reasons, including the use of diclofenac in veterinary practice. Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is believed to be swallowed by vultures with the flesh of dead cattle. This drug causes kidney failure in several species.
While there are some sites in Maharashtra where these vultures continue to breed to date, there is no data on the behaviour of their parents and nestling during the breeding period.
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During the first visit to the vulture colony by Ela Foundation in February 2015, the researchers saw one nest with one egg and the female attending to the nest.
“We also saw a pair of Bonelli’s Eagles continually attacking the vultures on the cliff site. On our subsequent visits, we noticed that the particular nest, where the vulture was seen, was empty. The cliff site is not accessible to macaques or any other ground predators,” Dr Satish Pande, an ornithologist and founder of Ela Foundation, told The Indian Express.
As part of the project to conserve vultures, the state forest department and Ela foundation have taken up a year-long study to understand the ecology of the vulture species. According to Sunil Limaye, Chief Conservator of Forests, Wildlife Division, Pune, still cameras with motion auto-sensors were installed at the cliff nests, but they had their own limitations because of the frame rate constraints. “They are unable to track the nests sites round-the-clock. Several instances where the activities on the wing were rapid are missed in the still cameras,” he pointed out.
“We plan to set up a field station for vulture monitoring and start round-the-clock live video camera recording and live video streaming of the Indian vulture activities and study their breeding and feeding behaviour,” Limaye said.
“The video recording will also help identify threats. Live streaming of the video on personal computers using broadband network will also enable us to monitor the nest sites from our offices. The forest department has also roped in climbers like Amod Moghe and his team from Mountaineering Quest for their expertise in climbing high cliffs,” Limaye said. “Apart from climbing high mountains, we are also students of ornithology. We feel it vital to conserve this nearly extinct species,” Moghe said.
Moghe, along with others. helped in deploying the cameras in such a way that the parent vulture is not disturbed.
