Gloucestershire bird experts lead project to protect vultures

They're not the most glamorous of birds but wildlife experts in Gloucestershire are trying to protect vultures which have been dying at an alarming rate in India.

The bird of prey plays a vital role as nature's cleaners, but medicine for cattle has been poisoning the creatures when they eat their carcasses.

The International Birds of Prey Centre at Newent is spearheading a project to breed the endangered vultures for conservation.

They are now listed as critically endangered, which means that this bird has a 50% chance of extinction in your lifetime.

The WWF says numbers species have undergone dramatic declines of 95-99% on the Indian subcontinent due to the poisoning by the livestock-drug Diclofenac ingested from animal carcasses.

Jemima Parry-Jones, the head of the centre, travels to India regularly to help with a project to protect vultures there.

As the numbers of vultures go down other scavengers move in to fill the gap.

India has now banned the use of veterinary Diclofenac, but the vultures are protected yet as other similar drugs are still be used on cattle, and are proving to be toxic to birds.