- Red-headed Vulture
Taxobox
name = Red-headed Vulture
image_width = 300px
status = CR
status_system = iucn3.1
status_ref = IUCN2007 | assessors = BirdLife International | year = 2007 | title = Sarcogyps calvus | id = 19903 | downloaded =2007-09-12 ]
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Chordata
classis =Aves
ordo =Accipitriformes
familia =Accipitridae
genus = "Sarcogyps"
genus_authority = Lesson,1842
species = "S. calvus"
binomial = "Sarcogyps calvus"
binomial_authority = (Scopoli,1786 )
synonyms =
*"Aegypius calvus"
*"Torgos calvus"The Red-headed Vulture ("Sarcogyps calvus"), also known as the Asian King Vulture, Indian Black Vulture or Pondicherry Vulture, is a species of
Old World vulture found inSouth Asia .Up to 85 cm (34 in) long and weighing 3.7-5.4 kg (8.2-11.9 lbs), this gaudy-faced
vulture was historically abundant with range over south-central and south-easternAsia extending fromPakistan toSingapore . Today the range of the Red-headed Vulture is localized primarily toNepal and northernIndia where it is found in open country and in cultivated and semi-desert areas.It used to be declining, but only slowly; in 1994 it was uplisted to Near Threatened from Least Concern by the
IUCN . The widespread use of theNSAID Diclofenac - a compound now known to be extremely poisonous to vultures - inveterinary medicine inIndia has caused its population to collapse in recent years, however. The population of this species has essentially halved every other year since the late 1990s, and what once was a plentiful species numbering in the hundreds of thousands has come dangerously close toextinction in a mere decade-and-a-half or so. Consequently it is uplisted to Critically Endangered in the 2007IUCN Red List .References
External links
* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3383&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet.]
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