Vulture Chick Born in Captivity in India

MUMBAI, India -- The oriental white-backed vulture, endangered across South Asia by eating tainted meat, has been bred in captivity for the first time in India, scientists said Monday.

The chick, hatched Jan. 1 in a breeding center in Pinjore, in northern India's Haryana state, belongs to one of three species of Asian vultures facing extinction.

"This is the best New Year's gift we could get," said Vibhu Prakash, who heads a vulture breeding initiative. "We are waiting for a couple more eggs to hatch."

Millions of long-billed, slender-billed and oriental white-backed vultures have died in South Asia over the past 12 years after eating cattle carcasses tainted with diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory painkiller given to sick cows.

Conservationists had not expected the vultures, which are captured and isolated for the breeding program, to breed until the end of 2007.

"This is the first vulture baby of this species to breed in captivity," said Prakash. "None of the vultures bred in other parts of the world were as endangered as this species."

Scientists believe two breeding centers, one in Haryana and the other in West Bengal, are the only hope for the survival of the species.

The World Conservation Union has listed the three Indian vulture species as critically endangered, the category applied to animals closest to extinction.

Tens of millions of vultures played a key role in South Asia's ecosystem by disposing of carcasses, keeping down populations of stray dogs and rats that also feed on dead carcasses and can spread diseases among humans.

But the population of the three species of vultures has dropped by as much as 97 percent, according to Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which provides funds and technical expertise for the Indian breeding program.

"It is a hugely important milestone and in terms of international conservation it is very significant," said Chris Bowden, head of the Royal Society's Vulture Conservation Program. "It gives us confidence the program is on the right track and breeding is the key solution to save such a rare and endangered species."

Conservationists plan to release the vultures to the wild. "Now every year we hope to have more and more young ones," said Asad Rahmani, director of the Bombay Natural History Society. "Once there are 25 young ones we will release them together."