Flight of the vulture

With their fearsome talons, acid poo and a penchant for rotting carcasses, the vulture has long been shouldered with associations of death, and dishonour. This taboo often puts them bottom of the list for conservation projects. Conservationist Sacha Dench visits three different vulture species, each with an extraordinary story of persecution and survival. In India, vulture populations collapsed by 99.9%, the sharpest decline of any animal ever recorded. Debbie Pain and Chris Bowden describe the urgent international collaborative effort that brought them back from the very brink of extinction. In South Africa, the White Backed Vulture has become collateral damage in the ongoing war between poachers and game-keepers. Finally, in Guinea-Bissau, vultures are the victim of cultural practices which see their bodies as having magical properties.

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