Read the following passage given below –
Evolution has designated vultures to be the ultimate scavengers. Enormous wingspans allow them to circle in the air for hours. Their beaks, while rather horrifying, are weak by bird standards, made to scoop and eat flesh. However unappealing they may seem, vultures serve an important role in the ecological cycle: processing dead bodies of animals.
Only 20 years ago, India had plenty of vultures—flocks so enormous they darkened the skies. But by 1999, their numbers had dropped due to a mysterious kidney ailment. By 2008, 99.9 percent of India’s vultures were gone. It was finally discovered that they had been killed by a drug called diclofenac (a pain reliever along the lines of aspirin or ibuprofen). Indians revere their cows, and when a cow showed signs of pain, they treated it with diclofenac. After the animal died, the vultures would eat the corpse. And though they boast perhaps the world’s most efficient digestive system, vultures cannot digest the drug.
India banned the use of diclofenac for veterinary use in 2006, but it’s still widely used. The near extinction of vultures has caused a disease in the country, as rats and dogs moved in to take their place—spreading pathogens that would have otherwise been destroyed by the vultures
Vultures need large ranges to scan for food and undisturbed areas in which to nest. They also need an abundance of prey species since they rely more on chance than their own hunting skills to eat. All of these things have been reduced by human activity. Meanwhile, there is a dramatic increase in secondary poisoning. Vultures feed on carcasses laced with poison, intended to kill jackals or other predatory carnivores. Or they are poisoned by the lead in animals left behind by hunters.
On the basis of your reading of the passage answer the following questions:
1. Who are the natural scavengers?
2. How do the special beaks and wings work?
3. How did their numbers decrease?
4. Why do we need these ‘scavengers’?
5. Why do vultures need more prey?
6. Why are the dead bodies laced with poison?
7. What is ‘secondary poisoning’?
8. Give any two factors responsible for the death of vultures?
1. Natural scavengers are the scavengers who are responsible for ecological balance. They are held important in the processing of the dead bodies of animals.
2. Enormous wingspans allow vultures to circle in the air for hours. Their beaks, while rather horrifying, are weak by bird standards, made to scoop and eat flesh.
3. Decades ago, India had a large number of vultures, but by 1999, their numbers had reduced. This is because of a mysterious kidney ailment. They had been killed by a drug. Also, after the death of an animal, the vultures would eat the corpse and vultures cannot digest the drug and thus die.
4. We need these scavengers because if they don’t exist then it will cause disease in the country by the spread of pathogens that would have been destroyed by the vultures.
5. Vultures scan for food in various undistributed areas. They need a large number of preys because they rely more on their own hunting skills.
6. Dead bodies are laced with poison because they are intended to kill jackals or other predatory carnivores
7. Secondary poisoning is a poisoning, in which Vultures feed on carcasses laced with poison, which are intended to kill jackals or other predatory carnivores, or they are poisoned by the lead in animals left behind by hunters
8. The factors responsible for the death of vultures are:
•Mysterious kidney ailment
•Due to a drug called diclofenac
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