EATERS of carrion and associated with death, vultures might not be the most charismatic or cuddly of birds – but for one Swindon vet they hold a powerful fascination.

Dr Tom Dutton, from the veterinary practice Great Western Exotics, not only appreciates the finer qualities of the vulture, he travels round the world to help with conservation of wild populations and trains local vets on better vulture care.

“I’ve always been interested in birds of prey and raptors, and I went into that line of work with avian medicine,” he said. “Over the last four or five years, I have worked with the International Centre for Birds of Prey in Newent, and they have a collection of vultures.

“I started to get involved in conversations with Wildlife Vets International – they do a lot of conservation work in Europe and Africa and Asia with vultures, and I developed a medical interest in treating vultures who came into the centre, from various centres and breeding programmes.”

Despite their strange appearance – they have fewer feathers on their faces so they can dig into carcasses – vultures have often had a positive role in mythology and religion. The ancient Egyptians reckoned they protective mothers, and the goddess Nekhbet was portrayed as a vulture. People following the Zoroastrian religion put their dead on a raised platform called a Tower of Silence for the vultures to consume.

Britain does not have native vultures, but they live wild in parts of Europe such as Spain, France and Bulgaria. Four species can be found in Europe, the cinereous vulture, griffon vulture, bearded vulture and Egyptian vulture. The largest, the cinereous vulture, found in southern Europe, can have wingspan of almost three metres and a weight of ten kilogrammes.

Tom explains that the British climate, environment and farming practices are not conducive to a vulture population, as fallen animals are not left on the ground.

“Vultures are very misunderstood,” he said. “We need a lot of education about how important they are, particularly for the ecosystems of Africa and Asia. They are an incredible clean-up animal. They can consume meat not fit for consumption by any other animal – even when it’s infected by rabies and anthrax. They create an end point.”

He said vultures had a very acidic stomach, enabling them to digest carrion without harm. When vulture populations have crashed, the consequences have been widely felt.

“An anti-inflammatory medicine called diclofenac was widely used for cattle in India. The cows would die in the wild and be consumed by the vultures and the drug would poison the vultures very quickly,” he explained. “They suffered kidney failure. Over ninety per cent populations declines were seen.”

The vulture population crash had wider consequences – causing an explosion in the feral dog population and a consequent increase in rabies cases.

Vultures also face danger from power lines, and they are frequently killed by electrocution. He said vultures were also a secondary victim of poachers in some African countries.

“If poachers kill a rhino or elephant, they will often poison the carcase,” he explained. “Vultures are incredibly efficient and will come from many miles away to the site of a kill. If you get one dead rhino, you might get hundreds of dead vultures.”

Poachers have increasingly poisoned carcasses to target the vultures because they circle overhead and can attract the attention of anti-poaching rangers.

Tom is working with colleague Neil Forbes for the charity Wildlife Vets International and will be travelling to Bulgaria for five days this summer, where he will be talking to local vets about better ways to take care of injured or sick vultures, such as techniques to repair orthopaedic injuries. They would like to increase the release rate of injured vultures.

He said vultures offered unique challenges as patients.

“The ultimate aim after treating a vulture is release into the wild. After receiving veterinary care, they need rehabilitating in large enclosures with other animals of the same species – cultures are very social and do not respond well to isolation.”

He also travelled to South Africa two years ago, to support vulture conservation work.

In his regular practice at Great Western Exotics, Tom is a specialist in treating avian and exotic patients. He treats all sorts of birds and reptiles at the surgery at County Business Park, on Shrivenham Road.

And why should we all rethink our prejudice against vultures?

“When soaring on thermal currents, vultures are stunning animals,” he said. “They have brilliantly adapted large, broad wings which allow them to make use of the smallest amounts of lift. They have incredible eye sight (and some excellent smell) and are very sociable… The are highly intelligent and sensitive to change in their environment.”

Tom added: “A number of vultures are critically endangered. If there is not an immediate, targeted and collective effort to protect them, we will lose these vitally important birds for ever.”