In
the earlier checklist of Similipal published in 2014, we had not included
Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus). Neither any past record nor any
of the Avi-fauna Guides show Odisha as a migratory range for this specie except
for a rescued individual from Bonai.
On
17th Dec 2014, a Juvenile individual ( photographed below) was rescued from Kaliasole beat in Deuli
Range of Baripada Forest Division in North East Odisha. It looked very
exhausted as per the Range officer of Deuli, Shri P K Mallick. It did not
accept the dressed chicken that was given as food. Veterinary officer of
Suliapada rendered the preliminary treatment. Subsequently, the next day,
it was transferred to Nandankanan Zoological park where it will be
rehabilitated along with 2 other individuals. One of them was rescued sometime
in 2011 from Bonai Forest Division1.
This
species breed in North West Pakistan and Afganistan. Stray records of breeding
in J &K and Himachal Pradesh has been recorded from past. Their winter
migratory range somewhere is a straight line from North of Maharashtra to West
Bengal. But these 2 instances of the rescue of Cinereous Vulture from
places located in nothern half of Odisha tentatively indicates that their
wintering range might be Odisha also. Based on this particular individual's
rescue from Deuli, we are including Cinereous Vulture in the checklist of birds
of Similipal Biosphere Reserve.
Rescue sites of the individual Vultures
Map Credit: Google Earth
Map Credit: Google Earth
References:
Naoroji
Rishad; Birds of Prey of the Indian Subcontinent ; Om Publications (2006)
www.zoosprint.org/ZooPrintMagazine/2011/May/15.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinereous_vulture
