Asian Vulture Work - Tree Climbing in Nepal

[stevelucocq]

Hi, I thought people would be interested in the work I have just return from. I have been lucky enough to carry out various tree climbing/IRATA work for the RSPB over the past few years and my latest trip was one of the most challenging and rewarding.

 

Three species of Asian vultures are under threat of extinction. The problem occurs when vultures feed on carcasses of livestock treated with the veterinary drug diclofenac. Their numbers have dropped by 99.9% over the last few decades and things are now very critical for the future of these species.

 

I was involved with a team to gain access to vultures nests situated high within trees throughout Nepal. This allowed satellite tags to be fitted to vulture chicks and to collect chicks for the captive breeding program. The climbing systems we used were mainly the use of the bigshot catapult to fire a high line into the trees. SRT techniques were used and then a change over to double rope techniques to get to the nests. The main trees we were climbing were the Indian silk cotton trees (Bombax ceiba - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and sal trees (Shorea robusta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

 

In total we climbed around 50 trees ranging from 10-35 metres over a 10-day period. Some long interesting journeys were needed to different colonies of birds. The plan changed on an hour-by-hour bases which proved exciting with a number of problems having to be overcome. Everyone in the team gave 100% and all targets were achieved on the last day of climbing.

 

If your are interested to read more about this work please visit:

 

The RSPB: Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction,

Home

or my blog Nepal 2009 - Asian Vulture Conservation Project working with the RSPB.

 

Thanks Steve

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Good to see you back, and I have to say, together the last two images have a lot of power within them, enough to bring a tear to my eye, for real.

[BenR]

:thumbup:Well done Steve, Looks like you had a great time and all for an excellent cause.

[mrtree]

The Pines? P. roxburghii or P. allichiana maybe?

[Ian Flatters]

Great work, love the 5th from last picture too very arty.

[swinny]

My girlfriends out in nepal now gone for 6 weeks lol

[timtree81]

looks fantastic mate ,where you from in swansea ? im in pontarddulais

[Lyndon]

ystragunlais i think tim ,but I might be wrong

[evergreen]

Fantastic work and photos. Especially like the jeep. When i was in Chitwan in 2007 we borrowed an old russian jeep from WW2 that drove like a boat, no steering rack to speak of. Admiral work Steve. Very impressive. Im in awe.

 

Where on earth will the next project be?

[bbtarb]

awesome pics!