I wrote recently about how captive breeding is sometimes the only thing that will save animals from extinction (‘Last chance to see'). This is the case in the huge crisis - as catastrophic as Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" - affecting Asian and African vultures. These birds are entirely irreplaceable in the role as ‘trash collectors' -removing dead animals from the landscape across large portions of the world's surface. But they are on the edge of extinction because of drugs used to treat domestic cattle which are, to them, deadly poisonous. Eat a dead cow treated with the drug? Death follows. And populations have fallen by more than ninety-nine point nine percent. Yes, you read that right.
(read the background to this story: http://www.birdlife.org/news/news/2009/09/vulture_awareness.html)
The drug - diclofenac- is an oft-prescribed human drug for arthritic pain, and it is a similar use in cattle. When veterinarians started prescribing it in India and elsewhere, they - and everyone else - had no idea as to the consequences. But vultures who fed on dead animals treated with this non-steroidal anti-inflammatory were overtaken by a lethal form of gout, where their neck was bent over and they could no longer feed.
This problem was first documented in 2004. In 2006, India, Pakistan and Nepal outlawed the use of the drug....but the populations are still in decline. The birds are in deep trouble.
And surprise, surprise, you only appreciate something when it's been taken away from you.... lack of vultures has meant that wild dogs have stepped into the breach - their population has exploded. As has the risk of dog bites and rabies.
Then, God help us, the same problem started in Africa.
I have always admired vultures, I must admit, although I know they are not everyone's cup of tea. Even so, we are on the point of having a Silent Spring with no happy ending. DDT was banned and the bird population came back, eventually.
...But it is getting all too horribly close for the vultures. But then, who cares about the garbage collectors until they don't turn up one day?
Ted Turner is getting credit for his endangered species preserves and for raising endangered species like the gray wolf in captivity. Do you feel the way he is going about his effort to save endangered species is the most effective or does it need to be done on a grander scale to make a difference? I'm not asking for an answer I can refute with my opinion, I really want to know what you think.
There was a great article on this is Harpers a few months back. The gist was: the Zoroastrians belief the body is impure and so to bury it would defile the Earth. So instead, they leave their dead in outdoor areas called "Towers of Silence" where their flesh is eaten by vultures. The bones are then swept into a pit. Now, with almost almost all vultures eliminated from India because of diclofenac, the bodies just sit there and putrefy.
This diclofenac situation is just one in a long line environmental travesties unravelling in India. As far as I can tell, the government has absolute no regard for the environment.
@Joanne: captive breeding - until a safe natural habitat can be made for the animal - is the last ditch response. It works well, but takes skill and a lot of support by scientists, villagers, politicians etc in the animal's native country so that the species can be re-introduced eventually. Conspicuous recent successes are the Californian Condor, the Mauritius Kestrel, etc. See www.durrell.org and peregrinefund.org for more information here.