Indian Vulture

The Indian vulture is a large Old World vulture formerly abundant across the Indian subcontinent that underwent one of the most rapid population collapses in wildlife history — losing over 97% of its population within a decade in the 1990s. The cause was traced to diclofenac, a veterinary anti-inflammatory drug that causes fatal kidney failure in vultures that consume treated carcasses. Conservation measures including a diclofenac ban and captive breeding programmes have begun to stabilise numbers.