Red Headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), male, family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes, Madhya Pradesh, India
Also known as the Asian King vulture, Indian black vulture, or Pondicherry vulture
Critically Endangered
There are nine species of vulture in India, however most have become endangered
The population has gone down over 99% according to some estimates; there used to be literal millions of vultures in India
The primary cause is the use of a medicine called Diclofenac, used to treat pain in cattle. When the cattle die, the vultures eat the carcass, and absorb the medicine into their bodies, which ends up killing them
The drug was eventually banned/heavily restricted, but populations are slow to recover
This is called the Indian Vulture Crisis
Vultures play a critical role in the environment by cleaning up dead bodies and limiting the spread of disease; for example, it has been suggested that they kept rabies under control by eating animals that had died of rabies and fighting off the disease (birds contrary to popular belief can get rabies, but it is very rare and they can fight it off)
Due to the severe decline in vultures, the feral dog population exploded, which led to rabies being spread
Photo by Dibyendu Ash
