BIRD conservationists in India have recruited the help of Newent bird of prey expert Jemima Parry-Jones in a desperate bid to save three endangered species of Asian vultures.
Jemima is an internationally renowned authority on breeding birds in captivity and runs the International Birds of Prey Centre in Newent
After a conference in Delhi in 1999 she was asked to take part in a captive breeding project, working with Gyps vultures.
Numbers of Oriental White Back vultures, Long-billed vultures and Slender billed vultures have plummeted in recent years.
Jemima said: "With common birds, humans tend not to notice until there has been a humungous drop in numbers.
"This is the biggest catastrophe we have seen in any species which has not become extinct, because of the sheer numbers involved."
A drug called diclofenac is said to be responsible for the dramatic decline which has seen the loss of 40 million Indian vultures.
The drug was used to treat cattle and livestock in India and Pakistan and the vultures feeding on the carcasses were poisoned.
Since 2006 the Indian government has banned the manufacture of the drug, but imports are still legal.
Jemima is part of team including the RSPB, the Bombay Natural History Society and the Zoological Society of London that is working to create captive breeding sites.
Jemima said: "I look at the birds, advise, train staff and help with the aviary design. Until now we have left the birds to themselves to see how they behave.
"This year we are starting some manipulation, taking eggs and double clutching them."
If eggs are removed from a breeding pair after around 10 days then they will often produce another egg, doubling the number of birds produced in a clutch.
"This makes the programme more viable, but it is still a long term project and could take around 25 years before numbers are up enough to release the birds into the wild," she added.
"It is going to be a long, slow process – we have to be breeding to second and third generation birds before we can think about releasing them back into the wild."
Funding is still desperately needed as the cost of food alone for the vultures currently kept in captivity is £100,000 a year.
Jemima said: "People ask why we are spending all our money on feeding vultures where there are people starving in India, but the decline in vultures has a huge impact on the population too.
"India is a Hindu country and there are 502,000,000 goats, sheep, cattle and buffalo which are all dying.
"With no vultures to eat the carcasses, numbers of rats and feral dogs are increasing and India is now top in the world for rabies deaths, which seems to be related to the decline in vultures."
To support the appeal, contact the International Centre for Birds of Prey in Newent, visit www. icbp.org/index.html or visit the RSPB campaign at http://www.rspb.org">www.rspb.org. uk/supporting/campaigns/vultures/index.asp