|Old World vultures belong to the family Accipitridae,
which also includes eagles, buzzards, kites, and hawks.
Old World vultures are not closely related to the superficially
similar New World
vultures and condors, and do not
share that group's good sense of smell. Old World vultures are
probably a polyphyletic group within Accipitridae, with
Palm-nut Vulture, Egyptian Vulture and Lammergeier separate
from the others.
Both Old World and New World vultures are scavenging birds,
feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals.
Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight. A particular
characteristic of many vultures is a bald head,
devoid of feathers; if vultures had head feathers, they would
become spattered with blood and other fluids when the
vultures ate flesh from carcasses, and thus would be difficult
to keep clean.
Gypaetus barbatus, med et vingespenn på over 3 meter!
Photo: Richard Bartz, Munich aka Makro
|Lammergeier / Bearded Vulture
|Eurasian Griffon / Griffon
|Himalayan Vulture / Griffon
|Indian (Long-billed) Vulture
|Rüppell's Vulture / Griffon
|Threat due to diclofenac poisoning
Diclofenac poisoning has caused the vulture population in India
and Pakistan to decline by up to 95% in the past decade, and
two or three of the species of vulture in South Asia are nearing
extinction. This has been caused by the practice of medicating
working farm animals with diclofenac, which is a non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) with anti-inflammatory and pain
killing actions. Diclofenac administration keeps animals that
are ill or in pain working on the land for longer, but, if the
ill animals die, their carcasses contain diclofenac. Farmers
leave the dead animals out in the open, relying on vultures
to tidy up. Diclofenac present in carcass flesh is eaten by
vultures, which are sensitive to diclofenac, and they suffer
kidney failure, visceral gout, and death as a result of diclofenac
The decline in vultures has led to hygiene problems in India
as carcasses of dead animals now tend to rot, or be eaten by
rats or wild dogs, rather than be tidied up by vultures. Rabies
among these other scavengers is a major health threat. India
has one of the world's highest incidences of rabies.
The decline in vultures causes particular problems for certain
communities, such as the Parsi, who practice sky burials, where
the human dead are put on the top of a Tower of Silence and
are eaten by vultures, leaving only dry bones.
Meloxicam (another NSAID) has been found to be harmless to vultures
and should prove an acceptable alternative to diclofenac. The
Government of India banned diclofenac, but over a year later,
in 2007, it continued to be sold and is still a problem in other
parts of the world.