The Nilgiris is home to some nesting sites of the critically endangered long-billed vulture. But they are susceptible to disturbances from human interventions. After multi-year monitoring of the nests, researchers say even minor disturbances from tourism-related activities can cause the nesting sites to fail.
From 2018 to 2021, researchers S. Manigandan, H. Byju, and P. Kannan monitored four nesting sites in the Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves. Their findings have been laid out in a paper on ‘Monitoring observations of the southernmost breeding population of Long-billed Vultures, Gyps indicus, in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India’. The paper has been published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, a peer-reviewed, scientific journal.
