Skip to content

Nepal’s White-rumped Vulture Population Grew 12.7% a Year; Adult Survival Was Estimated at 94.7%

White-rumped Vulture in rain at Jatayu Vulture Restaurant in Nepal
Conservation · Population & status

Nepal’s White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis) population continued its recovery after reaching a low point around 2012. Repeated counts along the same road-survey routes from 2013 to 2025 estimated an average increase of 12.7% a year. The study was published on 20 July 2026 in Ibis.

High survival and rising breeding productivity

Survival was also high among 70 wild vultures fitted with GPS transmitters. When birds were classed as adults from four years of age, estimated annual survival was 94.7% for adults and 95.5% for subadults. The small numerical difference was not supported as a real difference in survival between the two age classes. For a long-lived bird that produces relatively few young, keeping adults alive has a strong effect on population growth. Adult survival influenced the population models more strongly than the other survival and reproduction rates included in them.

Nest monitoring provided a second sign of recovery. Researchers monitored 6,410 nests between 2007 and 2025. On average, 69.2% produced a fledged young, and breeding productivity increased over time, including during the recovery period.

Population growth could largely be explained within Nepal

The researchers then asked whether survival and reproduction within Nepal could explain the rapid increase, or whether substantial immigration from India was needed. A population model combining survival and reproduction predicted growth of about 8.7% a year when first breeding was assumed to begin at four years. The plausible range around that estimate included the growth measured by the road surveys, so the study found no conclusive evidence that substantial immigration was needed to explain the recovery. Because first-year survival has not been estimated for White-rumped Vultures, the model used an estimate from Griffon Vultures for juveniles.

The increase was not stronger near the Jatayu supplementary feeding site than farther away, so attraction to this predictable food source did not explain the national trend. The authors instead link the recovery primarily to high survival and improving productivity after veterinary diclofenac was removed from use. Diclofenac had caused the catastrophic collapse of Gyps vultures across South Asia.

Numbers in Nepal remain far below pre-collapse levels. Other anti-inflammatory drugs that are toxic to vultures are still a threat, and the authors argue that restricting unsafe veterinary drugs and testing new drugs for vulture safety remain central to protecting the recovery.

Sources and image credit

  1. Mallord, J. W., Joshi, A. B., Chaudhary, I. P., Thakur, D. C., Thapa, I., Bhusal, K. P., Rana, D. B., Dhakal, B. K., Galligan, T. H., & Green, R. E. (2026). Continued population recovery and high annual survival rates of White-rumped Vultures in Nepal. Ibis. https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.70094Primary open-access study first published 20 July 2026. Road transects estimated 12.7% annual population growth in 2013–2025; adult annual survival 0.947 and subadult survival 0.955 under the four-year age-at-first-breeding assumption; 6,410 nests were monitored from 2007–2025.

Image: Mildeep / Wikimedia Commons — wild White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis) in rain at Jatayu Vulture Restaurant in the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park, Nepal, 4 May 2025. The Jatayu site is directly relevant to the study’s test of whether supplementary feeding influenced the national population trend; the bird is not identified as one of the GPS-tagged study individuals. · CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Population & status

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.