The 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. Nevertheless, they are a keystone animal in every environment they live in. And in nearly every one, they're in trouble.

Conservationist Sacha Dench travels 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, in the 'Indian Vulture Crisis'. 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. Sacha meets Kerri Wolter and Alistair Sinclair of Vulpro, the organisation that’s rescuing and rehabilitating these innocent bystanders.

Finally, in Guinea-Bissau, vultures are the victim of cultural practices which see their bodies as having magical properties. Sacha talks to Jose Tavares from the Vulture Conservation Foundation, and Andre Botha from the IUCN Vulture Group, who reveals the cultural practices which put the birds at risk.