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TURKEY OPENS RESTAURANT FOR VULTURES .TURKEY OPENS RESTAURANT FOR VULTURES
National Geographic News Watch
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/ne ws/chiefeditor/2010/02/turkey-vulture-restaurant.h tml
Feb 16 2010
The first vulture restaurant has opened in Turkey, and already it is
acquiring customers.
The site selected for the restaurant is in Igdır, in view of Mount
Agrı, near the border with Armenia in Eastern Anatolia (see map
below). The area is home to four vulture species--the Egyptian,
bearded, griffon and black vultures.
"The area around the valleys of Aras and Arpacay is the best spot to
set up, for the first time in Turkey, vulture restaurants that have
been operative in many countries such as South Africa and Mexico for
years," said Cagan Å~^ekercioglu, KuzeyDoga Society president and
senior research biologist at Stanford University.
Å~^ekercioglu, a National Geographic grantee, has played a leading
role in establishing conservation areas for birds in Turkey and
other parts of the world. (Read the earlier blog post: Turkey's First
Island Sanctuary for Birds Is Built From an Old Dirt Road and watch
the National Geographic Wild Chronicles video on Å~^ekercioglu's
research on forest birds in Costa Rica forest, fragments and coffee
plantations.)
The new vulture restaurant in Turkey is "a safe place to feed the
scavenger birds with roadkill, butchershop remains, the carcasses
of farm animals that have died naturally--horses, donkeys, dogs--or
animals like wild boars that have been killed by local hunters,"
Å~^ekercioglu said in an email.
Bird-watching hides are to be built for local residents, tourists
and wildlife photographers to observe the vultures feeding on the
carcasses. In this way, the vulture restaurant will benefit both the
birds and the local economy, Å~^ekercioglu said.
The venture has the support of YaÅ~_ar TurkleÅ~_, the Ministry
of Environment and Forestry National Parks and Nature Protection
Directorate (DKMP) Wildlife Department Director, who visited the
vulture restaurant in the company of Cemal Akcan, DKMP Wildlife
Management Branch Director, and Taner Tazegun, Director of Igdır
Environment and Forestry Directorate. "The officials said that they
were pleased with the realization of such an initiative for Turkey's
wildlife, and underlined that the required support would be made
available," Å~^ekercioglu said.
An agreement to establish Turkey's first vulture restaurant was
signed by M. Kemal Yalınkılıc, Director General of the DKMP,
and by Å~^ekercioglu, on December 25, 2009.
Vultures are in a grave danger throughout the world, Å~^ekercioglu
said.
"Some of the medications used in veterinary medicine cause a kidney
collapse in the vultures that plunder the carcasses of the animals
on which the medications are used," he said.
Vulture populations have collapsed in India because of the use of
such drugs in cattle.
The carrion-eating birds have been on the decline in India due to
exposure to diclofenac, a common livestock drug, National Geographic
News reported in 2008. "A survey of vultures in northern and central
India has found the birds' populations have plunged to near-extinction
levels--one species is down 99.9 percent since surveys began in the
1990s," National Geographic News reported. (Read the story: Many
Asian Vultures Close to Extinction, Survey Finds.)
The crash of the vulture populations in India has resulted in an
explosion in the number of feral dogs that feed off rotting carcasses.
The dogs in turn have caused a large number of human deaths through
the spread of rabies.
"Since we are apprehensive about suffering the same crisis in Turkey,
our vulture restaurant provides the vultures with a source of food
that is free of chemicals," Å~^ekercioglu said.
Animals are not hunted specifically for the new vulture restaurant,
Å~^ekercioglu said. "Wild boars are hunted by farmers to protect their
crops. We are working with them and the local environment and forestry
administration to pick up these carcasses for the vulture restaurant,
and provide lead-free copper bullets to the hunters in return."
Lead-poisoning is a major cause of the deaths of vultures such as the
California condor. "In fact, California has banned the use of lead shot
bullets in the range of the California condor," Å~^ekercioglu said.
(Read more about what exposure to lead does to vultures.)
"We are hoping to reduce the use of lead bullets in Turkey,"
Å~^ekercioglu added. "Our vulture restaurant is the first initiative
in Turkey to publicize and spread the use of non-lead bullets, as
well as the first initiative to publicize the problem of veterinary
drugs and limit their use to safe alternatives such as meloxicam."
Cagan Å~^ekercioglu (right) and Taner Tazegun, Igdir Director of
Environment and Forestry, the manager of the vulture restaurant.
National Geographic News Watch
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/ne ws/chiefeditor/2010/02/turkey-vulture-restaurant.h tml
Feb 16 2010
The first vulture restaurant has opened in Turkey, and already it is
acquiring customers.
The site selected for the restaurant is in Igdır, in view of Mount
Agrı, near the border with Armenia in Eastern Anatolia (see map
below). The area is home to four vulture species--the Egyptian,
bearded, griffon and black vultures.
"The area around the valleys of Aras and Arpacay is the best spot to
set up, for the first time in Turkey, vulture restaurants that have
been operative in many countries such as South Africa and Mexico for
years," said Cagan Å~^ekercioglu, KuzeyDoga Society president and
senior research biologist at Stanford University.
Å~^ekercioglu, a National Geographic grantee, has played a leading
role in establishing conservation areas for birds in Turkey and
other parts of the world. (Read the earlier blog post: Turkey's First
Island Sanctuary for Birds Is Built From an Old Dirt Road and watch
the National Geographic Wild Chronicles video on Å~^ekercioglu's
research on forest birds in Costa Rica forest, fragments and coffee
plantations.)
The new vulture restaurant in Turkey is "a safe place to feed the
scavenger birds with roadkill, butchershop remains, the carcasses
of farm animals that have died naturally--horses, donkeys, dogs--or
animals like wild boars that have been killed by local hunters,"
Å~^ekercioglu said in an email.
Bird-watching hides are to be built for local residents, tourists
and wildlife photographers to observe the vultures feeding on the
carcasses. In this way, the vulture restaurant will benefit both the
birds and the local economy, Å~^ekercioglu said.
The venture has the support of YaÅ~_ar TurkleÅ~_, the Ministry
of Environment and Forestry National Parks and Nature Protection
Directorate (DKMP) Wildlife Department Director, who visited the
vulture restaurant in the company of Cemal Akcan, DKMP Wildlife
Management Branch Director, and Taner Tazegun, Director of Igdır
Environment and Forestry Directorate. "The officials said that they
were pleased with the realization of such an initiative for Turkey's
wildlife, and underlined that the required support would be made
available," Å~^ekercioglu said.
An agreement to establish Turkey's first vulture restaurant was
signed by M. Kemal Yalınkılıc, Director General of the DKMP,
and by Å~^ekercioglu, on December 25, 2009.
Vultures are in a grave danger throughout the world, Å~^ekercioglu
said.
"Some of the medications used in veterinary medicine cause a kidney
collapse in the vultures that plunder the carcasses of the animals
on which the medications are used," he said.
Vulture populations have collapsed in India because of the use of
such drugs in cattle.
The carrion-eating birds have been on the decline in India due to
exposure to diclofenac, a common livestock drug, National Geographic
News reported in 2008. "A survey of vultures in northern and central
India has found the birds' populations have plunged to near-extinction
levels--one species is down 99.9 percent since surveys began in the
1990s," National Geographic News reported. (Read the story: Many
Asian Vultures Close to Extinction, Survey Finds.)
The crash of the vulture populations in India has resulted in an
explosion in the number of feral dogs that feed off rotting carcasses.
The dogs in turn have caused a large number of human deaths through
the spread of rabies.
"Since we are apprehensive about suffering the same crisis in Turkey,
our vulture restaurant provides the vultures with a source of food
that is free of chemicals," Å~^ekercioglu said.
Animals are not hunted specifically for the new vulture restaurant,
Å~^ekercioglu said. "Wild boars are hunted by farmers to protect their
crops. We are working with them and the local environment and forestry
administration to pick up these carcasses for the vulture restaurant,
and provide lead-free copper bullets to the hunters in return."
Lead-poisoning is a major cause of the deaths of vultures such as the
California condor. "In fact, California has banned the use of lead shot
bullets in the range of the California condor," Å~^ekercioglu said.
(Read more about what exposure to lead does to vultures.)
"We are hoping to reduce the use of lead bullets in Turkey,"
Å~^ekercioglu added. "Our vulture restaurant is the first initiative
in Turkey to publicize and spread the use of non-lead bullets, as
well as the first initiative to publicize the problem of veterinary
drugs and limit their use to safe alternatives such as meloxicam."
Cagan Å~^ekercioglu (right) and Taner Tazegun, Igdir Director of
Environment and Forestry, the manager of the vulture restaurant.