Study identifies free-ranging dogs as a key threat to vultures at Bikaner carcass dumpsite in the Thar desert

Key facts

• A new study published in the journal Biological Conservation found that perennially free-ranging dogs pose a serious threat to vultures at a livestock carcass dumpsite in the Jorbeer Conservation Reserve near Bikaner in Rajasthan's Thar desert.
• Himalayan and Eurasian griffons, whose numbers have dwindled catastrophically in India, congregate at the Jorbeer dumpsite every winter, along with Egyptian vultures, steppe eagles, black ibises, cattle egrets and wild pigs.
• India's vulture populations plummeted by over 90% in the 1990s, largely due to the veterinary use of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac in livestock, causing local extinctions in several parts of the country.
• Vultures spent about half as long on carcasses at the open Bikaner dumpsite as at dog-free enclosures, and dog presence restricted vulture feeding largely to the afternoon instead of across daylight hours.
• The study, co-authored by Abi T. Vanak of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, concludes that dogs are a major threat to vultures at the site.
• Dogs have contributed to the extinction of 11 vertebrate species globally and prey on over 80 species in India, including blackbucks, desert foxes and olive ridley turtles, and have been documented attacking snow leopards in Ladakh.
• The study recommends managing dog populations and creating dispersed, dog-proof vulture feeding sites or 'safe zones' to encourage landscape-level foraging and reduce dependence on a single site.