Captive-bred vulture pair nurtures chicks in the wild

The groundbreaking discovery of a chick in the nest of released captive-bred white-backed vultures from the Rajabhatkhawa Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre in the wild has been dubbed as a major conservation triumph for the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR).

A pair of ‘white-backed’ vultures, reintroduced into the Buxa Forest, are successfully nurturing their chick in a nest in the wild. The Buxa Tiger Reserve recently released images of the vulture’s nest, marking a significant milestone.

Soumya Chakraborty, the vulture expert overseeing the Rajabhatkhawa Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre, emphasised: “Strict monitoring played a crucial role in making this long-term plan a reality. Instead of relying solely on satellite signals, we conducted 24-hour deep monitoring, reaching ground zero only when necessary. Finally, a new horizon of vulture breeding in nature has been successfully opened up.”

This pair had built a nest in November 2023. The positive trend continued as monitoring teams confirmed the presence of an egg in December 2023, marking a crucial step in the breeding process. The excitement peaked in January 2024 when the nestling hatched, making the captive-bred vultures proud parents. At around one-month-old, the nestling thrives, underscoring the success of conservation initiatives aimed at rehabilitating these endangered birds. Parveen Kaswan, Deputy Field Director of BTR (West), stated: “About a month ago, we learned that a pair of white-backed vultures had laid eggs in a tall tree in the deep forest. Now, they are happily living with healthy chicks — a big milestone.”

Since 2006, the Rajabhatkhawa Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre, the sole artificial vulture breeding centre in the state, has been a hub for experiments on almost extinct vultures like Slender Bill, Long Bill and White Backed. World-famous vulture experts like Prof Bibhu Prakash and Sachin Ranad frequent this centre. Over the past three years, 23 ‘White Backed’ vultures were gradually released into the wild from that Breeding Centre, facilitated by satellite-controlled ‘Platform Terminated Terminals’ imported from America. This technology allows round-the-clock monitoring of the

vultures’ movements.

The state Forest department emphasises that the centre’s significance has surged due to the success of breeding in a

natural environment.