Vulture occurrence and people's willingness to provide livestock carcasses for the sustainability of vulture safe feeding site Gaidahawa, Rupandehi, Nepal

Abstract

Vultures are scavengers and help to maintain clean environment. Vultures mostly depend on the livestock carcass and the Vulture Safe Feeding Site (VSFS) was established for providing the diclofenac free carcass to the vultures. However, the sustainability of these VSFS in the future is unknown. This study counted the number of vultures of different species through direct count method, and estimated local people’s willingness to provide old livestock to the VSFS using a questionnaire survey. Vultures were counted during autumn and winter season and questionnaire survey was performed in 310 households that have livestock in the year 2022. Whiterumped vulture, Himalayan vulture, Egyptian vulture, Cinereous vulture and Slenderbilled vulture were observed in VSFS of Gaidahawa.

Vulture abundance was higher during winter than it was during autumn. Out of the total households with livestock, very few (17%) respondents were willing to give their old livestock to VSFS. Nearly half of the respondents had positive attitude towards VSFS, however, respondents near to VSFS were comparatively unhappy towards the VSFS than the respondents living far from VSFS. Nearly half respondents mentioned the main cause of vulture population decline was due to food scarcity. This study assumed that the management of VSFS is poor in Gaidahawa, and in future the VSFS might have difficulty to get old livestock to sustain the vulture in the site. This study recommends that the VSFS needs to encourage local respondents to provide old livestock, raise awareness, provide transportation facility to carry livestock and make immediate management plan and policy for VSFS of Gaidahawa.