“Nepal’s critically endangered white-rumped vultures are making a rapid comeback. A new analysis of roadside vulture surveys estimates that the population has grown by an average of 12.7 percent per year since hitting a low in 2012. The recovery follows Nepal’s efforts to eliminate veterinary use of diclofenac, a livestock painkiller that poisons vultures when they feed on the carcasses of treated animals,” reports The Doomslayer.
The British Ornithologists Union explains:
The White-rumped Vulture, endemic to South and Southeast Asia, was once possibly the most abundant large raptor in the world. In 1985, renowned vulture expert, David Houston, wrote ‘It is very abundant throughout India… …Its ability to live alongside man probably makes it the least vulnerable of all vultures…’. Yet it was this close relationship with humans that ultimately led to the species’ downfall and near extinction, when millions of vultures were unintentionally poisoned by the veterinary drug diclofenac. This led to declines of more than 90% across South Asia…
Nepal has been particularly successful in eliminating diclofenac from the veterinary market, which has led to the rapid, albeit partial recovery of the WRV population. In our study, we report on the most up to date road transect surveys of vultures…
These surveys, last carried out in 2025, have shown that the WRV population has continued to increase at a rate of 12.7% per year since the population low point in 2012.
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The wood stork is no longer endangered in the United States, with its numbers growing to at least 10,000 pairs.
Red-necked ostriches are replacing similar birds that went extinct in Arabia.
Cape vulture populations are growing in South Africa.
Genetically-modified pigs now provide pork and bacon that people who are allergic to pork can eat.
A genetically-modified chicken lays eggs that people allergic to eggs can eat.
