Cambodia's vulture population now numbers 296 birds, from 260 in 2009PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodia's critically endangered vulture population has become the only one in Asia on the rise this year, helped by nest protection and a chain of "restaurants", a wildlife group said Friday.
The country's three species of vulture -- white-rumped, red-headed, and slender billed -- now number 296 birds, from 260 in 2009 and just 166 in 2004, a census by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) found.
WCS said vulture numbers have been dwindling throughout Asia for years, driven in part by deaths caused when the birds eat cattle carcasses laced with an anti-inflammatory drug -- dicloflenac -- which is fatal to them.
The group said Cambodia is the only Asian nation where the drug is rarely used, while the Cambodia Vulture Conservation Project, a partnership led by WCS, has introduced a number of innovations to help the birds avoid threats.
Communities have been paid to protect nests, while diclofenac-free food has been supplied at seven "vulture restaurants" -- feeding stations across eastern and northern Cambodia that also allow tourists to see the huge birds up close.
"By protecting nests and supplementing food supplies, we are saving some of the world?s largest and most charismatic birds," Dr Hugo Rainey, WCS technical adviser to the project said in a statement on the group's website.
"Nowhere else in Asia do vultures have such a promising future."
WCS said its census indicated that numbers of white-rumped vultures are increasing, while populations of red-headed and slender billed vultures are stable, though all three are still officially listed as critically endangered.
The group said 36 vulture chicks hatched from colonies across the north and east of the country, almost twice the number in the previous season.
But WCS warned rising pesticide use in agriculture posed a new threat to the vultures, causing more than 20 deaths since 2008.
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