CHENNAI: A one-year-old captive-bred, juvenile white-rumped vulture, has taken a 4,000-km-long flight from the Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra to Pudukkottai in Tamil Nadu.
The weary bird, which made numerous pit stops in its sojourn including Chennai, has been resting its wings at an abandoned agricultural plot in Aranthangi for the past four days.
The vulture, listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, was GPS-tagged and released in Tadoba-Andhari in July as part of the Jatayu conservation initiative.
The Maharashtra forest department and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) have GPS-tagged 20 vultures (10 long-billed & 10 white-rumped), all brought from the Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre in Pinjore, Haryana. While the long-billed vultures were released in the Pench Tiger Reserve, the white-rumped ones were released in Tadoba.
Of these, one juvenile white-rumped vulture has been observed to be wandering alone and flying long distances. As per GPS data shared with TNIE, the vulture has so far covered 4,000km, stopping briefly in different states over five months.
For the past four days, the bird has been resting in the same agricultural plot in Aranthangi. BNHS then asked S Bharathidasan, founder of Arulagam, an NGO that works towards the conservation of vultures in the Nilgiris biosphere, to check on the bird since it stopped moving.
State continues to remain the preferable nesting and foraging ground for vultures
Bharathidasan told TNIE, “The bird is not injured. Because it has travelled such a long distance, it is exhausted.” I was there on the spot observing the bird and gave one kg of meat, which it devoured. I will inform the forest department and request they capture the vulture and release it in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, which is home to a healthy vulture population especially in the Moyar valley,” he added. It’s rare to see a single vulture flying for such a long distance, Bharathidasan said, adding that it might be because it is captive-bred.
The TN forest department should also tag few vultures to further understand the species' behaviour, he said. The recent synchronised vulture population estimation in TN, Karnataka and Kerala shows that there are 320 vultures and TN continues to remain the preferable nesting and foraging ground for these critically endangered scavenging birds.