Hyderabad:

Dashing long-awaited hopes of breeding, the egg laid by a white-backed vulture a fortnight ago at the Nehru Zoological Park fell from the nest and smashed to the ground. The male vulture, in a bid to readjust the nest pulled out a few twigs which led to the egg falling down, zoo officials said. This was captured by the CCTV cameras installed at the breeding centre.

The egg was crucial for the centre that became operational about a year-andhalf ago, four years after it was announced, to initiate captive breeding of the endangered birds. The scavenging birds have been almost wiped out in India in the past 10-15 years due to a drug called Diclofenac, used as a pain-killer in humans and animals.

The Parsi community that places its dead in the `Tower of Silence’ to be consumed by these scavenging birds has been the worst effected. Zoo officials said the egg fell down within a couple of days after it was laid. “Both were incubating it but on the day of the incident, the female went a few metres away to have its feed and in the meantime, the male vulture pulled out some twigs from the nest and the egg fell down,” said Shekhar Reddy, curator (in-charge) of the zoo park.

Though experts said that once the first egg is lost, the birds usually lay a second one but zoo officials said that another egg was not laid.

The captive breeding centre in zoo park is among the two such establishments set up by the Centre, including the one at Pinjore in Haryana.

The centre in Hyderabad, currently operating in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Micro Biology (CCMB), has two male and three female vultures aged over 20 years. Officials said the breeding is likely to begin again in the next season starting October. They said that this was the first time the egg was laid in the centre.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / City> Hyderabad / Home> Collections> Centre / TNN / February 23rd, 2012