CONSERVATION / REINTRODUCING RED-HEADED VULTURES TO THE WILD

Breeding programme launched.

JULAWAN DOLOH

The near-extinct red-headed vulture will soon be soaring above the forests of Uthai Thani again if a new breeding and reintroduction programme to release the birds back into the wild proves successful. The red-headed birds will be the first vulture species to be bred and reintroduced into the wild under the five-year joint programme by the Zoological Park Organisation (ZPO) and Kasetsart University (KU).

Prateep Duangkhae, of KU's forestry faculty, said red-headed vultures (Sarcogyps calvus) were last seen in the wild in Huay Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary in the western province of Uthai Thani in the early 1990s.

Vultures were once abundant in Thailand, but disappeared from forests here due to poisoning and over-hunting, he said.

The last big flock disappeared in early 1992, after eating a poisoned deer carcass. The carcass had been contaminated with toxic chemicals by tiger hunters using the deer as bait.

Today, only six red-headed vultures are known to be alive in Thailand. All are in captivity in ZPO-owned zoos.

Veterinarian Boriphat Siri-arunrat, of the ZPO's technical division, said the project to reintroduce the red-headed vultures to the wild will run until 2012.

The species will be bred and the offspring released into the Huay Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary.

Mr Boriphat said the red-headed vulture was picked as the ''pilot species'' for the reintroduction programme because they are easily fed and have a higher chance of survival in the wild than other vulture species.

There are three species native to Thailand _ the white-rumped, slender-billed, and red-headed vulture.

They used to be found in protected forests of Doi Inthanon national park, Huay Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary, Thung Yai Naresuan wildlife sanctuary and in some paddy fields.

Vultures are now close to extinction and are rarely seen in the wild due to dwindling natural food resources, and chemical and pesticide contamination of their food.

Veterinarian Chaiyant Kesorndokbua, of KU's faculty of veterinary medicine, said changing people's negative attitudes toward vultures was one of the core parts of the project. Thai people mostly regarded the vultures as a symbol of bad luck and tended to pay little attention to their extinction. The campaign would also urge people not to hunt protected species of birds and vultures, he said.

In the short-term, the faculty would study breeding the birds and ensuring they stayed healthy.

General News
Bangkok Post
Thursday January 25, 2007