Student Notes: Jamshed Chaudhry
Jamshed Chaudhry— 17 May 2002 — in Asian Vulture Crisis    Share"My first experience on the vulture project was to attend the vulture training workshop held on the 17th of November 2000 in B.Z University Multan, where Dr. Munir Virani and Cal Sandfort from The Peregrine Fund came to give presentations. That was the first time I came to know about the decline of vulture populations in Asia. I was inspired by their presentation and my interest in conservation began to develop.

At the end of November field training began. That was a little bit of a tough time, but very interesting too. We learned about fitting transmitters to the vultures, use of radio tracking and GPS apparatus. During vulture work I spent most of the time in the field and learned a lot from the birds. While studying time budget activity I observed the behaviors of parents and their young. I came to know how the parents care for their young, protect them from the sun, the cold, from other birds and even from human beings. We learned how to fit tags on to the wings of the vultures, through which I came to know about mortality rate in fledglings and their traveling to different areas. Two months ago an orange-tagged bird from the colony at Dholewala was seen in Toawala colony (Multan) and about two weeks ago I saw a yellow-tagged bird from Toawala at Dholewala.

In addition to all of my vulture work, I got the chance to study and survey different bird areas in Pakistan and work with experts from the Punjab Wildlife Department, Sindh Wildlife Department, Zoological Survey Department, and WWF Pakistan. Along with the Houbara Foundation, I assisted with surveys of the Cholistan Desert to study Houbara Bustard, Great Indian Bustard and raptors. I also surveyed the Taunsa Wildlife Sanctuary with WWF Pakistan, and identified more than 200 species of birds including different threatened species of raptors. I also took part in air surveys with the WWF team and experts from other departments. We took a chartered flight from Karachi to Jiwani and carried out coastal and land surveys from Gawadar Bay and the ocean up to the border with Iran. I identified 125 different species of marine and freshwater birds in this area. I also conducted a pesticide survey from Layyah to Gazi Ghat and collect a lot of information. During all these surveys I met with different people in different areas and learned a lot.

Before entering in vulture project I did not even know how to use the computer, but now I can. So all these were interesting and amazing experiences while doing vulture work."

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