Scientists plan artificial insemination for vultures

The scientists at the Andhra Pradesh capital's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology are close to achieving a breakthrough on a method of artificial inseminating the white-backed vulture after two years of efforts that went awry.

Wildlife experts say that because of the steep fall in the numbers of vultures in the city and elsewhere in the state, the bird of prey has been put on the list of "critically endangered" species.

State Forest Development Corporation officer K. Vara Prasad said that research was going on in different parts of the world to ascertain the factors that are leading to vulture populations declining. He says that the decline in population became alarming in the 1990s.

According to research, vultures could be dying because of the poisoning of cattle carcasses by villagers, possible transmission of pesticide from the carcasses to the vultures leading to the egg shells becoming too brittle to be hatched, attack of an unknown virus and, cutting down of high trees and quarrying of high peaks, their natural habitat.

This led the CCMB decided to find out whether artificial insemination is possible in vultures and how it could be achieved.

CCMB Deputy Director S. Shivaji says the scientists did not have a clue on how to distinguish a male vulture from a female since birds of both sexes are identical in size, shape and appearance.

That hurdle was crossed by closely examining the few vultures in Nehru Zoological Park. Now the scientists needed to get the semen from the male vulture.

"We were overjoyed to collect the first ever semen sample of a vulture in the world in November last year," Dr Shivaji said.

While subjecting the semen to various analyses, the scientists tested the artificial insemination experiment on pigeons first. "The successful experiment on pigeons has given us confidence. Soon we would be resuming work on the vultures," Dr. Shivaji said.

This is a project that the Parsi community in the city has welcomed because these birds play the role of erasing the mortal remains. This age-old custom is getting affected because vultures have vanished from the areas around the Tower of Silence. "It is really sad that we have to witness this day. No one actually knows what the problem is but the vulture population has diminished to a great extent and that does create problems for us," says Farukh Rokdawala, a businessman from Mumbai.

In fact, this has been the case in many other cities. The Godrej family has also submitted a petition to the government requesting them to carry out research and analysis in this regard and do something to see that the population of vultures is conserved.

Now that nature's way of decomposing the body after death is not working any longer, is there any other alternative that the Parsis have thought of to ensure quick decomposition of the body?

"In Mumbai, they have installed solar panels to speed up the decomposition process. Though slow when compared to the vultures – it takes them about four to five hours to consume the body – the solar panel concept works. We have also installed one at the Bhoiguda Tower of Silence here. I guess it should work, provided we have sunlight," says Hilla S Moos, president of the graveyard trust.