The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Nehru zoo to take up vulture census in city, Telangana

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 13, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Nehru zoo to take up vulture census in city, Telangana

Staff Reporter

PRECARIOUSLY PERCHED: A lone vulture at Nehru Zoological Park.

HYDERABAD: Nehru Zoological Park officials have launched a vulture census project in and around the twin cities and parts of Telangana to ascertain the population of the birds.

Till a few years ago, the white-backed and long-billed varieties of vultures were endemic to city outskirts and Telangana districts. However, their population has gone down drastically due to a host of reasons.

Zoo officials said the District Forest Officers of Telangana would count the number of vultures apart from finding out the extent of damage done to their natural habitat.

Conservation

"The vulture census is a part of the vulture conservation project to be taken up in the zoo. Earlier, a single habitat had 50 to 80 vultures in the city outskirts and districts like Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar. We need to get a rough idea about the ground realities," said Director of Nehru Zoological Park P. Bhaskar Reddy.

The Director also said researchers of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology successfully collected the semen samples of vultures at Nehru zoo.

The samples, which would be used for vulture breeding in the zoo, were being subjected to virility tests, he said.

"The studies conducted by the CCMB suggest that the vultures in this region have a habit of breeding during winter. They lay eggs only once a year and this is the ideal time for them to lay eggs. These studies will eventually help us in vulture breeding and conservation," he said.

The officials also point out that huge enclosures 100 feet in length and 40 feet in height will be rigged up in the zoo to ensure that the breeding vultures are not disturbed.

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