Trying to get a vulture back home

For everything that has to do with animals, endangered species, pets etc., what attractions worth seeing at the Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo or in cages at some Buddhist temples in the depth of Isaan. What wildlife can be seen at the National Park or even in the ricefields.
newsclip
Korat-Isaan-Forum-Gast

Trying to get a vulture back home

Ungelesener Beitragvon newsclip » Do Mai 10, 2007 6:30 pm

Rare vulture released in Thailand, after bird flu fears thwarted trip to Mongolia

DOI LANG, Thailand: A rare vulture was released into the wilds of Thailand on Thursday, after bird flu fears thwarted plans to send the young bird to nesting grounds in Mongolia.

It was the end of a high-level bid to get the bird to its homeland — a saga involving everyone from South Korean diplomats to Thailand's national airline, Thai Airways.

The cinereous vulture was released from a cage along with four Himalayan griffon vultures in a mountainous part of northern Thailand near the Myanmar border.

After an hour, the four brown-and-white Himalayan griffons flew off, leaving the black, cinereous vulture standing alone, stretching its wings.

A veterinarian then picked up the cinereous vulture and threw it into the air, forcing it to fly off toward a ridge.

Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua, who helped oversee the bird's recovery and was on hand for the release, said he hoped it would fare better in the company of fellow vultures.

"When we release them in a flock, it should be easier for them to find food," Chaiyan said. "But we still need to keep on praying. Hopefully, they will find the food and will fly onto China or Mongolia or any other country where they will spend the summer."

Still, bird experts expressed doubts that the bird will survive in an environment where there is a shortage of carcasses to feed upon, and where illegal poaching is widespread.

"It could get lost again," Gawin Chutima, chairman of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, said last month. "It's a young bird and has no experience."

Thai Airways first announced in March that it would transport the vulture to Mongolia to help the rare bird — found lost and emaciated in Thailand — return to its natural environment.

But Thai Airways and other officials involved in the transfer said in April that China had rejected a request that the vulture travel through Beijing, due to bird flu fears.

A request for transit through Seoul was rejected over similar concerns, even though the bird was tested twice and deemed free of the bird flu virus, officials said.

The year-old vulture, not found in Thailand, had been nursed back to health by veterinarians at suburban Bangkok's Kasetsart University after apparently getting lost in late December, and ending up dehydrated and near death in southeastern Thailand's Chanthaburi province.

It is now about a meter (3 feet) tall with thick, brown feathers and an imposing black and white beak.

International Herald Tribune May 10, 2007

newsclip
Korat-Isaan-Forum-Gast

Re: Trying to get a vulture back home

Ungelesener Beitragvon newsclip » Fr Nov 23, 2007 8:47 am

Rare vulture shot dead in Myanmar after being freed in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand: A rare vulture set free in northern Thailand is believed to have been shot dead by a villager in Myanmar, bringing an end to a haphazard campaign to return the bird to its homeland in Mongolia, a conservationist said Thursday.

Chaiyan Kasorndorkbua, a veterinarian who oversaw the release of the cinereous vulture, said his team lost contact with it in May, only three weeks after it was freed in northern Thailand. He said he then received an e-mail in July from a rebel soldier in Myanmar's Shan State who said a villager had killed the bird. The soldier then followed up in September with photos of the vulture's radio transmitter and leg band that convinced Chaiyan that the bird was dead.

"The soldier told me that the villager had never seen such a bird so became curious and shot it," Chaiyan said. "It is common practice in Southeast Asia when people have a gun to shoot and look later. This is a tragedy."

The odds of survival were never good for the ash-gray-colored vulture — named Anakin after a character in the "Star Wars" movies — after it was found in southeastern Thailand last December, emaciated and apparently lost.

Veterinarians in Bangkok nursed the bird back to health, feeding it pork legs and rotten meat. Chaiyan then teamed up with Thai Airways and announced plans in March to fly the bird to Mongolia.

But fearing bird flu, China and South Korea refused to let the bird be transported through their capitals, despite tests showing it was free of the deadly virus. The vulture was later freed in northern Thailand near the border with Myanmar, also called Burma, thousands of kilometers (miles) from its home.

"It's confirmed our belief from the beginning that it was risky to release the vulture on the Thai-Burma border," said Gawin Chutima, chairman of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand. "It's a pity. We lost a very good and rare opportunity to study the migration of one of the largest birds in Asia."

But Gawin and Chaiyan said the effort to return the vulture had raised awareness about the species' plight. Also known as the black or monk vulture, it is in decline in Asia because of habitat loss, shortage of food and shootings by villagers who believe the bird brings them bad luck.

"There remains a bad perception about vultures. We have to change that," Chaiyan said. "We may have lost this vulture. But with rehabilitation programs like this, we can raise public interest and awareness about vulture conservation."

The cinereous vulture — normally not found in Thailand — is defined as near-threatened by the World Conservation Union. Though its numbers are declining in Asia, conservation efforts have boosted the population in Greece, Spain and other parts of Europe. Its global population is estimated at between 14,400 and 20,000.

International Herald Tribune Nov. 22, 2007


Zurück zu „Animals“



Wer ist online?

Mitglieder in diesem Forum: 0 Mitglieder und 11 Gäste