When Vultures Nearly Disappeared in India, Half a Million People Died
August 14, 2024 11:33 PM Subscribe
When Vultures Nearly Disappeared in India, Half a Million People Died, Too, Study Finds.
By being nature’s clean-up crew, the often maligned birds help prevent the spread of diseases, according to a new study [Smithsonian magazine].
Also relevant: hargila, adjutant storks Leptoptilos dubius have been knocked off their perches by urbanisation and . . . people. Dr. Purnima Devi Barman is saving a few in Assam [30m YT in and around The Dump]. Pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and tigers (Panthera tigris) attract a disproportionate amount of the limited conservation dollars . . . because you can market a soft-toy out of those species. Vultures, not so much?
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:17 AM on August 15, 2024
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:17 AM on August 15, 2024
Pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and tigers (Panthera tigris) attract a disproportionate amount of the limited conservation dollars . . . because you can market a soft-toy out of those species. Vultures, not so much?
And yet, vultures can neutralise anthrax carcases, which can otherwise harm other animals a year after death. (Animals grazing near where an anthrax carcass fell a year ago can still get sick from soil bacteria.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 3:22 AM on August 15, 2024
And yet, vultures can neutralise anthrax carcases, which can otherwise harm other animals a year after death. (Animals grazing near where an anthrax carcass fell a year ago can still get sick from soil bacteria.)
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 3:22 AM on August 15, 2024
For whatever it’s worth, there are dozens of different vulture plushes available on eBay. It’s not actually that hard to make them cuddly and cute.
posted by Slinga at 4:30 AM on August 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Slinga at 4:30 AM on August 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
It's 100k people per year, not just 500k once. It's possible human hygine improved to partially compensate, so not sure if this really means like 24 million people this century.
Yet even if so, the extra hygine represents wasted human work, not unlike how manual pollination takes over when farmers kill all the pollinators.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:49 AM on August 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
Yet even if so, the extra hygine represents wasted human work, not unlike how manual pollination takes over when farmers kill all the pollinators.
posted by jeffburdges at 4:49 AM on August 15, 2024 [1 favorite]
Maybe vultures just need to be taken as a symbol by a famous band, like the dung beetle was.
posted by TedW at 7:08 AM on August 15, 2024
posted by TedW at 7:08 AM on August 15, 2024
The 99% Invisible podcast did an episode on this in April called Towers of Silence. Highly recommended!
posted by Preserver at 8:29 AM on August 15, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Preserver at 8:29 AM on August 15, 2024 [4 favorites]
Another way that life feeds on death. Nature is a great teacher.
posted by DJZouke at 5:10 AM on August 16, 2024
posted by DJZouke at 5:10 AM on August 16, 2024
When I lived out in the woods, a couple times I had something dead in the yard, and watched the buzzards gather. It was a safe spot for them, not on the road with traffic. They stood around looking like gentlemen at a cocktail party, tasking turns on grabbing a bite.
posted by Goofyy at 10:58 AM on August 16, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Goofyy at 10:58 AM on August 16, 2024 [4 favorites]
We've buse variable aka common buzzards above last year and nearby this year, and they'd ocasioanlly eat something dead, but they live in pairs like other birds of prey, so no cocktail parties sadly. We'd a snail explosion when they moved up the street, but now hedehogs have moved in.
posted by jeffburdges at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2024
posted by jeffburdges at 11:46 AM on August 16, 2024
"Buzzard" is colloquially used in the US to refer to turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) or black vultures (Coragyps atratus). They're carrion feeders, although black vultures will sometimes kill. We do have a lot of hawks in the same genus (Buteo) as Eurasian buzzards, but we generally call them hawks and not buzzards, at least where I'm from.
posted by mollweide at 12:01 PM on August 16, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by mollweide at 12:01 PM on August 16, 2024 [1 favorite]
Just watched a TV documentary on the poisoning of lions in Kenya. No one has been charged. The vultures who feed on the lions are dying in large numbers and have to be burned.
posted by DJZouke at 5:23 AM on August 20, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by DJZouke at 5:23 AM on August 20, 2024 [1 favorite]
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posted by phigmov at 12:25 AM on August 15, 2024