Population and breeding success of Red-headed Vulture Sarcogyps calvus and Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus in central west Nepal

Abstract

This study on population and breeding success of Red-headed Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) and Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) was carried out in the middle mountain region of central west Nepal covering Arghakhanchi, Kaski, Palpa, Salyan and Pyuthan districts. A total of 34 days of study were conducted from October 2011 to February 2013 and on each study day observation was conducted between 9h00 to 15h00. We did absolute counts of vulture aggregations in flight in Arghakhanchi, Palpa, Pyuthan and Salyan districts, and on a garbage dump in Kaski district, and used a jack-knife technique to estimate the population size of each vulture species. We estimated a total of 24 Red-headed Vultures and 241 Egyptian Vultures across these five districts. Periodic monitoring of each identified nest was done to determine breeding success and we followed Postupalsky (1974) for the categorisation of nests. Based on active nests as a primary unit, the breeding success of Egyptian Vulture was 62.5% for nine nests identified in breeding year 2012; average nesting cliff/tree height was 27.8 m and that of nests was 14.8 m. In the study we did not find any Red-headed Vulture nests, however fresh juvenile birds were recorded repeatedly in the autumn season. Historical reports indicate Red-headed Vultures and Egyptian Vultures were abundant in Nepal, but have undergone rapid population decline across their ranges in the recent past, which is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. Recent information from India indicates the rate of population decline is 44% per year for Red-headed Vultures and 35% per year for Egyptian Vultures.