A program to save South Asia's wild vultures from extinction by breeding captive populations may be an exercise in futility, according to research released today.
Captive colonies are too small to protect the species from extinction, University of Michigan scientists have determined.
Vultures once numbered tens of millions in India, Nepal, and Pakistan, where they provided valuable health services by consuming the remains of animal carcasses quickly. The birds also disposed of human remains set out for them on sacrificial "towers of silence" by adherents of the ancient Parsi religion.
