Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2023 | 15(7): 23601–23605
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8607.15.7.23601-23605
#8607 | Received 21
June 2023 | Final received 06 July 2023 | Finally accepted 10 July 2023
Breeding of Himalayan Vulture Gyps
himalayensis Hume, 1869 (Aves: Accipitriformes: Accipitridae) in
the Assam State Zoo, Guwahati, Assam, India
Sachin Ranade 1, Jay Gore
2 & Ashwini Kumar 3
1,2 Vulture Conservation Breeding
Center, Belguri, Rani, Assam 781131, India.
3 Assam State Zoo cum Botanical
Garden, Zoo Road, Japorigog, Guwahati, Assam 781005,
India.
1 s.ranade@bnhs.org (corresponding
author), 2 j.gore@bnhs.org, 3 dfoassamzoo@gmail.com
Abstract: Himalayan Vulture Gyps himalayensis has been bred successfully at the Assam
State Zoo, Guwahati in 2022. This is the first record of captive breeding of
the species in India. The adults were kept in a display aviary in the Zoo where
they constructed a nest on ground and laid an egg. The nestling was hand reared in temperature
and humidity-controlled boxes and air-conditioned room. It was fed on goat meat
and bone pieces and the consumption records maintained. The records of weight
gain and body growth were maintained. It took about five months to fledge out.
Keywords: Captive breeding, food
consumption, hand rearing, high altitude species, vulture nestling, weight
gain.
Editor: H. Byju,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. Date
of publication: 26 July 2023 (online & print)
Citation: Ranade, S., J. Gore & A. Kumar (2023). Breeding of Himalayan Vulture Gyps
himalayensis Hume, 1869 (Aves: Accipitriformes: Accipitridae) in
the Assam State Zoo, Guwahati, Assam, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(7): 23601–23605. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8607.15.7.23601-23605
Copyright: © Ranade et al. 2023. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to the
Central Zoo Authority and the Bombay Natural History Society, India. The
authors express their gratitude towards Mr. M.K. Yadava, PCCF WL & CWLW, Dr. Amit Sahai PCCF & HOFF,
Assam, and Mr. Tejas Mariswami,
former director, Assam Zoo. The authors are thankful to the veterinary team Dr. Shankar Sharma, Dr. Parikshit
Kakati, Dr. Percy Avari, Dr. Panchami Sharma and Dr. Indrani Borgohain,
range officer. The hard work by all staff of the Assam State Zoo and the staff
of Vulture Conservation Breeding Center, Rani is
acknowledged.
Himalayan Vulture Gyps himalayensis is the largest vulture among the old-world
vultures. Its distribution covers a wide range that includes the countries
Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal,
Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In India, this species breeds in the
Himalaya and in winter the immature population visits the plains (Ali &
Ripley 1983). The species is categorised as ‘Near
Threatened’ considering that about 66,000–334,000 individuals exist in the wild
(Botha et al. 2017). The species is a common winter visitor to plains of India
that includes Assam. This migration is done only by the immature birds in
winter while the adults remain in the breeding ground. The Himalayan Vultures
feed on livestock carcasses along with the local resident Gyps vultures
– the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis and the Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris. Their feeding habit makes them vulnerable
to the unintentional poisoning (Botha et al. 2017). As the feral dogs attack
the livestock, in retaliation, the poison baits are used by the cattle owners
to kill the dogs and wild carnivores. The vultures get attracted towards these
poisoned baits and feed on them. The victimized vultures in such incidences
were rescued and saved by the team of the Bombay Natural History Society and
Forest Department in Assam. The Himalayan Vultures saved from such incidences
in 2011–12 were kept in the display of the Assam State Zoo and Botanical Park
at Guwahati.
Housing and diet in the Zoo
Ten Himalayan vultures were kept
for display in a 40 x 30 ft aviary, covered with galvanized mesh. The vultures
were provided with meat daily. Water trough and perches were provided for
vultures. The vultures took more than five years to mature and one pair was
formed in the flock. The mating pair did not prefer the nest ledge that was
provided to them. Instead, they constructed a nest in a secluded corner of
aviary on ground when pine twigs were made available to the pair during the
months of December and January. In the first two years (2019–20), the parents
failed to construct a nest and incubate the egg, and the egg perished. In 2021,
a hatching problem was noted when the chick was stuck at the piping stage. It
is the stage at which the developed embryo breaks the shell with an egg- tooth
on its upper mandible and try to come out. The hatchling was rescued that
survived for six days but died due to unknown reason. The systematic
post-mortem could not provide any clue and tests for bacteriology and virology
were negative. In 2022, the successful hatching was noted on 14 March and the
nestling was shifted to the artificial brooding facility on 15 March.
Housing for nestling
During first month, the nestling
was kept in the brooder made up of a plastic box (1 x 1 x ½ ft) with a mat for
the grip. The temperature was maintained around 30–35° C with a lamp, a water
bowl and it was monitored with a thermo-hygrometer. The nestling was provided
with sufficient space to move towards and away from the heat source.
As the nestling grew up in size
during the second, third and the fourth months, the nestling was transferred to
larger boxes successively. The room temperature and humidity were maintained
with air conditioner and de-humidifiers.
During the fifth and the sixth
month, the nestling was kept in a temperature and humidity-controlled room, on
an artificial nest. The nest consisted of a layer of leaves that would soak up
excreta. Perches were provided on all four sides that not only avoided the
accidental fall of the nestling but also encouraged the nestling to perch on
it.
Food for nestling
The nestling started to feed from
the second day after hatching (16 March 2022). The nestling was fed
with very small pieces of goat meat in the first week and the food quantity was
increased as the days passed. From seventh day onwards, the nestling was fed on
pieces of ribs as Calcium supplement. From one month onwards, the nestling was
provided with goat tail that contained bones. In addition, the nestling was fed
with small pieces of muscles, liver and skin. In the beginning, the nestling
digested the bones pieces completely but on day 138, it regurgitated bone
pieces and hairs in casts for the first time. Taking it as a cue, the daily
feeding of additional bone piece was stopped though the goat tail was fed till
end of the sixth month.
Frequency of feed
In the first month, feeding was
carried out six times a day, from second to fifth month, feeding was done four
times a day while in the sixth month it was twice a day. The average
fortnightly food consumed by the nestling is represented in the graph. The
graph shows steep hike in food consumption in first three months—April, May,
and June. After that the graph rises gradually, forming a plateau from
September onwards. As the bird had fledged out in mid-August, by that time it
was almost completely developed. In the next couple of months, only the
primaries and tail grew up to the fullest. It could the reason of decreased
appetite of the fledgling in October, but it resumed again once the energy
consuming flight exercise was added to the daily routine (Figure 1).
Growth of nestling
The weight of the nestling was
recorded with a digital weighing balance. The nestling growth took place
somewhat exponentially till it fledged out in August. Afterward, the bird
gained weight gradually in next two months and stabilized at 7 kg. In nature,
the juveniles of Himalayan Vulture migrate to plains in November and must be
evolutionary programmed to gain weight as the energy reserve for the purpose
(Figure 2). The periodic photographic record was maintained to understand the
development of the plumage (Image 1–6).
A few important physical and behavioural milestones achieved during the nestling phase:
Day |
Important event |
0 |
Successful hatching took place
on 14 March 2022 |
2 |
The nestling opened its eyes
fully |
5 |
The nestling showed first
attempt to preen itself |
8 |
It quivered the wings to grab
attention for feeding |
10 |
The nestling was able to feed
itself from a bowl. Its downy coat became dense |
19 |
Its claws began to harden |
50 |
Interscapular, humeral and wing
coverts started to appear as the brush |
90 |
Primaries started to appear as
the brush |
107 |
It showed reaction to its own
image by hissing at it |
111 |
The nestling opened its wing
for sunning |
120 |
The nestling was introduced to
ground with grass for half an hour. |
150 |
Primaries developed completely,
though tail was a bit short |
Colouration of nestling
In the first week, the skin
around the eyes of the nestling was grey coloured.
The skin around tail portion was also grey in colour.
The cere and legs of the nestling were pink while
rest of its body was covered in whitish downy. Till one and a half month, the
nestling appeared whitish after which the coverts grew very fast. The coverts
were chocolate brown coloured with an off-white
streak along the rachis. The primary and secondary outer coverts on wings had
an off-white blotch at terminal position. The overall body of the nestling
started to appear chocolate brown in colour which is
a typical coloration of the juvenile. The primaries grew up by the end of fifth
month (Image 1–6). The morphometric records were taken on the day 160, when the
bird attempted to leave the nest-ledge and jumped out. The morphometrics
recorded were as follows: beak 50 mm, cere 30 mm
(depth 32 mm), tarsus 120 mm (width of tarsus 14 mm and height of tarsus 17
mm), wing cord 680 mm and tail 380 mm. Even after the event of jumping out of
the nest-ledge, the fledgling continued to stay on the nest or remained nearby
the nest in temperature-controlled room. The nestling was kept in the natural
environment in an aviary from day 190 onwards.
Discussion
The Himalayan Vulture is a common
winter migrant in Indian plains and resident of the high Himalayas, yet never
kept in any zoo for breeding purpose. The Assam State Zoo has a record of
keeping a few Himalayan Vultures for display, although all the birds were
rescued ones. Till the end of 20th Century, vultures were quite a
common sight in the wilderness and very few of them were appreciated, kept in
zoos and bred in captivity. Schlee (1989) recorded
the first successful breeding of the Himalayan Vulture in the menagerie in
Paris. A few more examples of vulture species being hand-reared are Ruppell’s Griffon Vulture Gyps rueppelli
(Schlee 1998), breeding of White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis
(Sarker & Iqbal 1997), husbandry of Cinereous
Vulture Aegypius monachus
in the North American Zoos (Diebold & White 1989), captive breeding of
Lappet-faced Vulture Torgos tracheliotus (Mendelssohn & Marder 1983; Beall
1992), breeding of Eurasian Griffon Gyps fulvus
(Gardener 1980), breeding of Bearded Vulture Gypaetus
barbatus (Zwart et al. 1991) and rearing of Andean Condor Vultur gryphus, and
King Vulture Sarcoramphus papa (Zwart
& Louwman 1978). In India, the Bombay Natural History Society has bred the
three species of vultures- White-rumped Vulture Gyps
bengalensis, Indian Vulture Gyps indicus
and Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris
in captivity for the conservation and reintroduction purpose (Bowden et al
2012)
The Himalayan Vulture being a
high-altitude bird, it is not usual for the species to breed in the low land
with tropical and humid climate. Yet, like many mammals and birds, the species
acclimatized and managed to breed (Lague 2017).
For
figures & images - - click here for full PDF
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