White-Rumped Vulture

Gyps bengalensis

The white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) is a South Asian carrion-eating vulture once widespread in India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and nearby regions. It is a dark, medium-sized Gyps vulture with a pale neck ruff and a conspicuous white patch over the rump that shows when perched or flying. Like other Gyps vultures, it depends on soaring flight to find large animal carcasses and often feeds communally. Formerly abundant around villages, livestock areas, and open country, it underwent one of the fastest bird declines ever recorded.

The crash was traced mainly to diclofenac, a veterinary anti-inflammatory drug that caused fatal kidney failure when vultures fed on treated livestock carcasses. Conservation programs now combine legal controls on unsafe drugs, promotion of safer alternatives, carcass testing, protected feeding sites, and captive breeding centers that hold birds until landscapes are safer. Zoo and breeding-center care requires large quiet aviaries, strict food sourcing, and colony conditions that allow pair formation and nesting. Recovery also depends on public cooperation, because vultures provide natural carcass removal that reduces feral dog and disease risks.