What Species: Eurasian Griffon Vulture (Gyps vulvus), Himalayan Griffon Vulture (Gyps himalayensis), Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus), Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus)

Where: The Tien-Shan mountains of southeastern Kazakhstan and the Greater and Lesser Caucasus Mountains in the Republic of Georgia.

Who: Todd Katzner (National Aviary), Sergei Sklyarenko (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan) and Alexander Gavashelishvili (Georgian Center for the Conservation of Wildlife); collaborators include Nancy Clum and Yula Kapatenakos (Wildlife Conservation Society & Cornell University) and Larissa Bailey (US Fish and Wildlife Service, Patuxent Research Center).

When: 2000 – present

Why (threats): Vulture populations worldwide are in decline. These declines have been ongoing for many years, but recently there has been a dramatic change for the worse. In south Asia (especially India and Pakistan, but also in Bhutan, Nepal and other neighboring countries) populations of Indian White-backed Vultures (Gyps bengalensis), once the most numerous bird of prey in the world, and two related species, have experienced declines of 95-99%.

All three species are in imminent danger of extinction. In 2003, a dramatic discovery by Lindsay Oaks, a biologist from Washington State University, showed the cause of these declines the non-steroid anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug Diclofenac. Diclofenac, which is often used on sick livestock, kills vultures, even at low doses. When any residue of the drug remains in the tissue of dead livestock, vultures that eat that tissue almost invariably die.

The demographic surveys that we are developing in Kazakhstan and in Georgia were initiated because we feared that vulture populations in the former Soviet Union could also be impacted by Diclofenac - either during the breeding season, or when wintering in south Asia. Furthermore, the massive economic changes in the former Soviet Union over the past 15 years have resulted in dramatic drops in the numbers of domestic and wild ungulates (hoofed animals) in the region. Since dead ungulates are the primary food source for vultures, we also suspected that this could result in a decline in food availability that could have consequences for vulture breeding.

Scientific or Conservation Problem this Project Addresses:

This is currently a demographic research project geared towards evaluating the population size and birth and death rates of populations of Eurasian and Himalayan Griffon Vultures and Cinereous Vultures.

Current Goals: Declines in bird populations can be caused by factors ranging from changes in adult mortality to changes sub-adult mortality to changes in breeding success. Recently developed mathematical models suggest that vulture decline in the former Soviet Union is caused by increased adult and juvenile mortality. We are currently developing new techniques that use non-invasive collection of feather samples (samples collected without capturing or handling birds), genetic analysis, and mark-recapture statistical models to estimate population size and survivorship rates for vultures in specific regions of Kazakhstan and Georgia.

Next Steps: In coming years we plan to continue development of our non-invasive monitoring techniques and to expand our sample collection so that we can more comprehensively monitor these populations throughout the other regions where we work.

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