High altitude buffalo buffet – flying with vultures

When we travel, Nathan and I often look for an opportunity to try something different.  And if there is a chance that we can learn or give back, that also hits high on our list.  Parahawking registered on all three.

On our first trip together 8 years ago we went to France.  After we hiked to the top of Puy de Dome, we saw paragliders launching off the side of the mountain and they were also selling the opportunity for tourists to join them.  At the time we were mildly broke, so shelling out dollars for that was out of scope, but certainly we have regretted it ever since.

I knew when I got to Pokhara, there were lots of adventure sports on offer, but paragliding really caught my eye so I quickly took to convincing Nathan that we should totally do it. As luck would have it when I met a fellow Canadian four or five weeks ago, she told me about her experience working with a group that did Paragliding but with birds to help find the best thermals for the gliding to be even better.  And not only do they offer just paragliding, but they also contribute to conservation efforts to combat the extreme and rapid decline in vulture numbers in Nepal.

Bob the Egyptian Vulture

As I wrote about in an earlier post, Asia has seen a massive decline in their vulture population – upwards of 97% in the last 15 years.  This has been attributed to the use of anti-inflammatory drug used mainly on cattle, which causes renal failure in vultures, who feed on the livestock when they die.  Since cattle are revered in the Hindu culture, they are kept alive for as long as possible and when they do die, they are left to decay naturally.  Vultures feed on them and in doing so they ingest the lethal medicine. 

Despite the product being removed from veterinary use, it is still available for human use, which means theoretically people still have access to treat their cows with it. And simply put, awareness of the fatal effects of this drug on the vultures is pretty low so it can be assumed that people in many areas are carrying on using the drug to treat the cows.

A bit of a domino effect has happened as well which is well documented in India.  They have calculated the costs to human productivity, by noting that the feral dog population has skyrocketed since there is so much carrion available to eat, and the drug has no effect on them.  In turn, human infections of rabies has gone up, and that has taken its toll on the health system as well as peoples overall wellbeing.

The glide itself is hard to describe, but the fun part was certainly taking off (wait for a gust of wind, three big steps, then run off a cliff) and feeding Bob, our thermal guide.  After the take off, the thermal scoops you up so high and so gently, it takes a moment to realize how far from the ground you really are.  With a clear blue sky, the whole Annapurna Mountain range can be seen, as well as the vast terraced hills surrounding Pokhara.  We had little pouches of buffalo meat and a leather bird glove for him to perch and feed on.  We’d track his flight by communicating with someone on the ground, and when he was gearing up for a bite to eat, the guide would blow the whistle and we’d stick our arm out ‘strong and straight’ for him to land on briefly (unless his claw accidentally got caught, oops!).  

At the end of the glide we sat down with one of the staff who does bird care, training and advocacy.  She told us all about the birds and their issues, as well as about the Vulture Restaurant they support, which works to collect non-contaminated carcasses for vultures to feed on.

It was a great experience, and I think it was certainly one of the highlights for us on our little vacation here in Nepal.

More information on the vulture rescue foundation is here: www.parahawking.com

And if you find yourself in Thailand and are looking for a similar type of experience, check out the Elephant Nature Park, which works on elephant rehabilitation and retirement with dignity, which means no rides for guests, but a fun day of river bathing and fruit feeding.

Written by Ashley & Nathan

How was your day?

When I was in Australia, I was travelling alone for 3 months so I had some time to fill with… things, like, travel things that you do to pass your time and see something new.  At that time early on in my trip that became scuba diving, which is weird because before I was petrified of the ocean. Things touching me, or the unseen things that might touch me was a really big turnoff, but a two day course later I was certified and hooked.

This time around it’s yoga although yoga doesn’t have that external sense of exploration with it, certainly the ‘guided meditations’ have a more internally focused exploration.  I have done yoga before but not regularly and not with a legit yogi who has an interesting aura of space around him. 

Scratch it till it bleeds...

His assistant is a young man from the hills who works wakes up early to study Japanese, then works on the family farm, and afterwards comes down to work at the yoga place as well. The walk takes about 1 hour, and lately at night he says by 5:45pm its pretty dark at the point when he’s not quite home yet.  Our conversation started off with “so how was your day?” which of course turned into, “tell me more about your farm” because I am slightly obsessed.

When he started telling me details about the family farm I went straight into interview mode.  The farm consists of 2 buffalo, 1 cow, 3 goats.  They milk the cows and make curd, butter and milk, and are able to come down the hill every 2 or 3 days to sell the butter and curd.  He says the buffalo can produce up to 3 liters a day which is higher than I have heard any farmer yet.  They also produce a rotation of grains: rice, wheat and corn which they use 50% for food, 25% for feed and 25% they are able to sell. They also produce mixed vegetables but have no tunnels.  On 5 ruponis (31 ruponis to a hectare), they are able to sell excess vegetables as well.  I forgot to ask about alternative streams of income because it seemed really interesting that they were able to sell excess food but perhaps they have a small family.

Something I learned in class (at school, in yoga today my mind settled on what animal will I eat for dinner today?) is that even if a small farmer is considered ‘subsistence’ level for growing, often times they will allot a small part of land for higher value crops such as a special holiday rice, to sell it for more profit and they buy in the staple rice they need.  In that way, even subsistence farmers are usually engaged in the market in some fashion.  Perhaps for this family, they are selling curd and butter (higher value thanks to processing) and buying other household needs.

The young man was learning Japanese so he can go abroad and make a more profitable career.  When I hear that though, it makes me a little sad because I think, if he is smart enough to learn Japanese, as well as speak decent English, is there nothing he could do to have meaningful work here?

Further to that, I asked if they have tunnels specifically, because I know that has been a big income generator for many farmers because the plastic tunnels help stretch out the season.  He said their land is too shady for tunnels, and that really it only helps the season for tomatoes and not the other crops. He also had a few other intelligent comments such as the price being too high and whatnot, and again, I was like, why isn’t this kid doing something entrepreneurial?

Anyhow, these questions get into a huge discussion which end somewhere in the arena of geopolitics, so far too advanced for this little blog, but I do know that lots of young people (1500 per day) leave Nepal to work abroad, and many when they get there earn very little more than they would had they stayed home.  It’s the prestige that draws them, as well as the false stories told by huge companies that essentially profit by charging people to place them in jobs abroad, not unlike the coyotes that bring people up from South America, and not dissimilar to their shady dealings either.

Things are blooming!