Available online
Description
Saving Species on BBC Radio 4 explores biodiversity, conservation and natural history, both in the UK and across the globe. We go to India in this edition of Saving Species to report on the last di...tch efforts to save the Long-billed vulture. Gillian Rice, our reporter in India, was told that this vulture has declined from around 40 million birds in the mid 1990s to just a few thousand today - the fastest declining group of birds in the world. In 2004 the drug Diclofenac was implicated in the vulture decline. The finger was pointed at this anti-inflamatory being used widely by vets and farmers in cows, and it was those vultures who scavenged the flesh of dead cows, still laden with this drug, that died. Right now there's a programme seizing some adult birds from the cliffs and bringing them into captivity to build a captive-born population for eventual release. The Bombay Natural History Society and the RSPB are involved - We'll bring you the story from India. We return to Microbes and the importance of these micoscopic life forms in the living world around us, including our health. And Brett has a close and noisy encounter with Pool Frogs in Norfolk. What are they and why are they important?
Saving Species on BBC Radio 4 explores biodiversity, conservation and natural history, both in the UK and across the globe. We go to India in this edition of Saving Species to report on the last di...tch efforts to save the Long-billed vulture. Gillian Rice, our reporter in India, was told that this vulture has declined from around 40 million birds in the mid 1990s to just a few thousand today - the fastest declining group of birds in the world. In 2004 the drug Diclofenac was implicated in the vulture decline. The finger was pointed at this anti-inflamatory being used widely by vets and farmers in cows, and it was those vultures who scavenged the flesh of dead cows, still laden with this drug, that died. Right now there's a programme seizing some adult birds from the cliffs and bringing them into captivity to build a captive-born population for eventual release. The Bombay Natural History Society and the RSPB are involved - We'll bring you the story from India. We return to Microbes and the importance of these micoscopic life forms in the living world around us, including our health. And Brett has a close and noisy encounter with Pool Frogs in Norfolk. What are they and why are they important?
| Series: | Saving species; Series 1 |
|---|---|
| Episode | 12 |
| First transmission date: | 2010-06-22 |
| Original broadcast channel: | BBC Radio 4 |
| Published: | 2010 |
| Rights Statement: | Rights owned or controlled by The Open University |
| Restrictions on use: | This material can be used in accordance with The Open University conditions of use. A link to the conditions can be found at the bottom of all OU Digital Archive web pages. |
| Duration: | 00:30:00 |
| + Show more... | |
| Producer: | Mary Colwell |
| Presenter: | Brett Westwood |
| Contributors: | Dave Ashurst; Aaron Bernstein; Chris Bowden; Andy Brown; Mary Colwell; John Fogarty; Vibhu Prakash; Gillian Rice; Nita Shah; Annabel Tipper; Brett Westwood |
| Publisher: | BBC Open University |
| Production number: | PBS02510WZ0012 |
| Available to public: | no |
