Widespread veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac is responsible for the population collapse of three species of Gyps vulture in south Asia; these species are now critically endangered. Vultures die when they consume carcasses of livestock that contain lethal residues of diclofenac. National and international conservation organizations have urgently recommended that diclofenac be banned and replaced with alternative drugs that are relatively safe to Gyps vultures and other scavenging birds. We tested the safety of the NSAID meloxicam on the oriental white-backed vulture, long-billed vulture and a range of other scavenging birds in India (Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus, cattle egret Bubulcus ibis, house crow Corvus splendens, large-billed crow Corvus machrorhynchos and common mynah Acridotheres tristis). Meloxicam was administered by oral intubation [at 0.5 and 2.0 mg kg À1 vulture body weight (bw)], or through feeding with muscle or liver tissue (at 0.3 to 2.1 mg kg À1 vulture bw) from meloxicam-treated buffalo Bubalus bubalis. We estimate that 2.0 mg kg À1 bw is the maximum likely exposure in the wild. All 31 Gyps vultures and the 20 other scavenging birds given meloxicam survived. Feeding behaviour remained normal and there were no significant differences between the treated and control groups in body mass, or the blood haematology and biochemistry parameters monitored, including those known to be affected by diclofenac (uric acid levels and alanine transferase activity). Meloxicam is used to treat a wide range of livestock ailments and is licensed and manufactured in India. We recommend that meloxicam be introduced as rapidly as possible across the Indian sub-continent as an alternative to diclofenac.

Wild parrots represent one of the greatest commercial interests in the legal trade in wild birds. Although it is difficult to quantify, there is a considerable illegal trade in wild parrots. Thirty-six per cent of the world's parrot species are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as threatened or near threatened, and 55% of these are threatened to some degree by trade. In this paper, we investigate the impact of protection on the number of nests that failed because of nestlings being taken by humans (hereafter nest take) and on nesting success in parrots. We collate data on parrot nest take from published and unpublished studies from Africa, Asia and Australasia, including countries and sites with and without national and local parrot protection measures in place. Nest take was insignificant in Australia, where all studies were from areas with both local and national protection. For less developed countries, levels of nest take were variable between studies, spanning the whole range from 0 to 100%. Protection significantly reduced nest take and correspondingly increased nesting success. Our results corroborate those for the Neotropics; thus, the advantages of protection appear to be independent of geographical location or political and economic conditions. We analysed data on legal trade in wild-caught parrots before and after implementation of the 1992 Wild Bird Conservation Act (which practically eliminated import of parrots to the USA) and found that there was no apparent shift in parrot imports to other global regions from the Neotropics. We suggest that conservation of parrots globally would benefit from similar legislation introduced in other regions, such as the EU (15), which is responsible for more than 60% of global imports of wild parrots.

Summary 1.Jerdon's courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is a nocturnally active cursorial bird that is only known to occur in a small area of scrub jungle in Andhra Pradesh, India, and is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. Information on its habitat requirements is needed urgently to underpin conservation measures. We quantified the habitat features that correlated with the use of different areas of scrub jungle by Jerdon's coursers, and developed a model to map potentially suitable habitat over large areas from satellite imagery and facilitate the design of surveys of Jerdon's courser distribution. 2. We used 11 arrays of 5-m long tracking strips consisting of smoothed fine soil to detect the footprints of Jerdon's coursers, and measured tracking rates (tracking events per strip night). We counted the number of bushes and trees, and described other attributes of vegetation and substrate in a 10-m square plot centred on each strip. We obtained reflectance data from Landsat 7 satellite imagery for the pixel within which each strip lay. 3. We used logistic regression models to describe the relationship between tracking rate by Jerdon's coursers and characteristics of the habitat around the strips, using groundbased survey data and satellite imagery. 4. Jerdon's coursers were most likely to occur where the density of large (> 2 m tall) bushes was in the range 300-700 ha − 1 and where the density of smaller bushes was less than 1000 ha − 1 . This habitat was detectable using satellite imagery. 5. Synthesis and applications . The occurrence of Jerdon's courser is strongly correlated with the density of bushes and trees, and is in turn affected by grazing with domestic livestock, woodcutting and mechanical clearance of bushes to create pasture, orchards and farmland. It is likely that there is an optimal level of grazing and woodcutting that would maintain or create suitable conditions for the species. Knowledge of the species' distribution is incomplete and there is considerable pressure from human use of apparently suitable habitats. Hence, distribution mapping is a high conservation priority. A two-step procedure is proposed, involving the use of ground surveys of bush density to calibrate satellite image-based mapping of potential habitat. These maps could then be used to select priority areas for Jerdon's courser surveys. The use of tracking strips to study habitat selection and distribution has potential in studies of other scarce and secretive species.

Jerdon's courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is a Jerdon's courser has not yet been detected. The use of tracking strips carries a small risk of misidentification of nocturnal cursorial bird that is now only known from a small area of scrub jungle in Andhra Pradesh, India. Its footprints of other species, especially yellow-wattled lapwing Vanellus malarbaricus, as those of Jerdon's courser, population size, distribution and habitat requirements are poorly known because of its elusive habits. We but has the advantage that large areas can be surveyed without the use of expensive equipment or night-time conducted a trial of a survey method that involved deploying an array of 5 m long tracking strips consisting fieldwork. We recommend the use of automatic camera traps to obtain confirmation of records of probable of smoothed fine soil, and checking them for footprints at regular intervals. We developed diagnostic methods Jerdon's courser footprints. for distinguishing the footprints of Jerdon's courser from those of other species. Tracks of Jerdon's courser were

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