Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking. Login or Take a Tour!
- The three species of Gyps vultures were dying from ingesting livestock carcasses treated with diclofenac, a mild painkiller akin to aspirin or ibuprofen. After taking it themselves for decades, Indians began using it in the early 1990s to ease the aches of their farm animals' cracked hooves and swollen udders. For reasons that remain unknown, vultures that feed on animals treated with diclofenac develop visceral gout—untreatable kidney failure that causes a crystallized bloom across their internal organs. Death occurs within weeks.
- Since the collapse of the vulture population, the number of feral dogs in India has risen by 30 percent. In a country that already accounts for nearly three-quarters of rabies deaths worldwide, dogs pose a serious health risk.