Main content

The vultures saved from extinction

South Asian vultures started dying in huge numbers in the 1990s but no one knew why. They were on the verge of extinction before scientists worked out what was killing them.

South Asian vultures started dying in huge numbers in the 1990s but no one knew why. They were on the verge of extinction before scientists worked out what was killing them. Bob Howard has been hearing from Munir Virani of the Peregrine Fund, who discovered that the vultures’ livers were being damaged when they fed on the carcasses of cattle which had been treated with a widely-used painkiller.

White-backed vultures in their enclosure at the Vulture Conservation Centre run by World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) in Changa Manga. September 20, 2017. Credit: ARIF ALI/AFP via Getty Images

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Fri 16 Apr 202102:50GMT
BBC World Service

More episodes

Previous

Fighting for Castro at the Bay of Pigs

Next

China's 'Kingdom of women'

See all episodes from Witness History

Broadcasts

  • Thu 15 Apr 202107:50GMT
    BBC World Service
  • Thu 15 Apr 202111:50GMT
    BBC World Service
  • Thu 15 Apr 202117:50GMT
    BBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
  • Fri 16 Apr 202102:50GMT
    BBC World Service

Podcast