From The Guardian:
Asian vultures are declining faster than any bird in history, including the dodo, and could become extinct within a decade, conservationists said yesterday.
A survey shows that the rate of decline is about 50% a year with one species, the white-backed vulture, falling by 99.9% since the early 1990s. Others such as the long-billed and slender-billed vultures have been reduced to around 1,000 in the wild.
Scientists blame the decline on an anti-inflammatory drug used for livestock, which can poison vultures feeding on treated carcasses. Diclofenac causes kidney failure in the birds within a few days of exposure and a single cow carcass can kill a large flock. Researchers counted the vulture population in northern and central India between March and June last year, surveying the birds from vehicles along almost 12,000 miles of road.
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