Treating Delhi's Birds of prey | Hacker News Reader

Treating Delhi's Birds of prey

aljazeera.com

42 pointsyareally10 comments

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.

"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.

I found that rationale for turning them away even more perplexing after reading their blog and other articles. These same places state they have no issue treating sparrows and pigeons, both of which are common opportunistic omnivores. Meanwhile, they turn away the endangered Egyptian Vultures the two brothers treat. At one time, Egyptian Vultures were so common, they were nicknamed "The Pharaoh's Chickens[1]."

Wish these guys had a PayPal or some other easy way for those of us outside of India to donate to their cause.

[1] They were considered sacred in Ancient Egyptian religion and illegal to kill.

Read this AMA about working in a Jain animal shelter -- absolutely no killing ever, no matter how much pain the animal is in -- and weep.

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/23leg0/iama_veterinary...

I guess that sort of explains why they refuse to take in birds of prey, though it still seems a bit based on ignorance for a Jain hospital to do so since at least the vultures are willing to eat an alternative diet without meat. Not sure if they can sustain that diet or if it was more like a supplement.

A southern Indian temple at Thirukalukundram near Chengalpattu was famed for a pair of birds that reputedly visited the temple for "centuries". These birds were ceremonially fed by the temple priests and arrived before noon to feed on offerings made from rice, wheat, ghee, and sugar. Although normally punctual, the failure of the birds to turn up was attributed to the presence of "sinners" among the onlookers.[23][79][80] Legend has it the vultures (or "eagles") represented eight sages who were punished by Shiva, with two of them leaving in each of a series of epochs.[81][82]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_vulture

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

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.

It was due to a medicine given to cattle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis

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.

Indeed.

A vulture's digestion is strong enough to kill anthrax and cholera -- an ecosystem service not provided by scavengers like dogs and rats.

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