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Climbers scale cliffs to capture vulture chicks
Following on from the success of 2005, another vulture chick catching mission was undertaken in March and April 2006. Staff from BNHS teamed up with three rock climbers (Richard Wesley, Martin Wightman and Richard Cuthbert) to capture vulture chicks from the cliffs of Madya Pradesh and Maharastra. Despite considerable logistic difficulties in accessing cliffs and working in temperatures exceeding 45 degrees C, the team succeeded in catching and safely transporting 27 chicks to the BNHS/Haryana Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre. The captured birds consisted of 26 long-billed vultures (a species now restricted to India) and 1 white-backed vulture. All of the long-billed chicks were caught from sheer rock-cliffs, some more than 150m high. The single white-backed chick was captured from the top of a 30m tree.
These chicks will form the nucleus of a captive vulture population, which will be released in to the wild once the environment is free from diclofenac. Collaboration between the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests, Chief Wildlife Wardens and State Forestry Departments was essential in enabling this work to proceed and we are grateful for their cooperation. The catching work in 2006 follows on from another climbing trip in 2005, when 8 long-billed chicks were caught from the cliffs of Bayana in Rajasthan (follow link here for last years work).
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