KARACHI, Nov 18: One of the most efficient scavengers of the wilderness in winged community, the vultures, are on the sharp decline in Pakistan, more so from the arid zones of Sindh where they once abounded, not because more domesticated animals die, but for the simple reason that for fewer chics hatch now than they did before.

The free and indiscriminate use of highly toxic pesticides and insecticides are reaching the bodies of the vulture females, that lay eggs carrying traces of the poisons eaten with the meat of birds and animals that are tossed away in the open to rot.

The pesticides have a long half-time, the traces stored in the body fat and liver reduces the thickness of the eggs. As the chics develop in the nest under the heat of the mama it turns a little, while it is still in the egg. The egg shall breaks open prematurely, exposing the chicks to the bacteria laden pathogens that find the half-developed chics easy prey to flourish in the egg yolk that sustains the chics for two to three days, after the emergence of even the healthy chics.

The partially developed chics die. These are thus fewer chics at the end of every breeding season.

The appearance of four different species of vultures — the white-backed, long-billed, Egyptian and the King — at one sport was nothing short of a rare coincidence, seldom seen by naturalists.

The white-backed is common in lower Sindh along the Indus, the long-billed is restricted and scare in the range, the Egyptian is encountered in the Khairthar range and in the Thar desert.

The King, with its characteristic deep yellowish head, neck and legs, give its identity a different hue, apart from its preference to remain aloof of the scrimmage at a carcass.

It was thought to be pugnacious, bold overbearing, inspiring among its scavenging community, and for its reputation to monopolize a carcass until it has had the choicest fill of the tit bits. Hence the prefix of king.

The Egyptian vulture, nicknamed as Paraho’s chicken, has the ingenuity to use a tool - a stone in this case - to break open as eggs of a bird like an ostrich to feed on.

The lammergeir, also a vulture, in the cooler north with the wing span of 8-9 ft, from tip to tip, drops an unbroken bone on a rock from the sky to break it open and get at the marrow to feed on. It’s the next beat way to find food; but throwing is a method not a tool.—PPI