First Captive-Bred Asian Vulture Chicks Die - Reuters

NEW DELHI - Two rare vultures said to be the first of their species bred in captivity have died after only a few weeks, a scientist said on Thursday, in a blow for conservationists trying to save the endangered South Asian birds from extinction. The Oriental white-backed vulture chicks had been warmly greeted when they hatched in January at a breeding centre in Pinjore in the north Indian state of Haryana.

Both chicks died later in January, Vibhu Prakash, the principal scientist of the Bombay Natural History Society's vulture breeding programme, told Reuters on Thursday. Prakash blamed the parents. "They were first-time parents and they just didn't know what to do with their chicks," he said. "That happens very often even in the wild."

The society is trying to save South Asia's Oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures from extinction. The population of these birds has dropped by more than 97 percent in the last 15 years, according to Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Scientists say the decline is largely due to farmers dosing their cattle with the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, poisoning the birds one step up the food chain.

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