I seem to remember reading some years ago about the decline in vultures
in India, due I believe to their ingestion of cows [who have been
treated with the pharmaceutical drug diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory
medication]*. I think the article was about changes in death practices
among Zoroastrians who traditionally leave their dead on an open
platform to be cleaned by vultures, but who were having to change this
practice because their were no longer enough vultures to handle the
process. I imagine the decline would also have affected the disposal of
animal remains, and perhaps even human remains in instances where they
weren't fully cremated, or not cremated at all but thrown in the Ganges
or other rivers (my memory of the Taj Mahal is of a body floating by in
the river behind it and the vultures hanging around, the picture not
shown in travel posters).
*I just found an article on this, though not the one I first read:
http://worldcowgirl.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/in-india-cattle-and-the-vulture-crisis/
Eve
On 10/31/2013 4:55 PM, Paul L Halstead wrote:
> Despite the relative abundance of carrion in the landscape today,
> some elderly herders point out that the availability of fodder and
> vets has dramatically reduced mortality and that, in their youth,
> vultures were a common sight - which is no longer the case.
>
> Paul
>
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