OrbitalMartian

Vultures — A Misunderstood Bird

📆 28 Jul 2025 16:55 UTC +01:00 📕 338 words ⏳ 2 min. 🏷️ #Animals #Conservation

Vultures are never looked at as cute birds, and often get a bad reputation for eating carcasses, but they are actually one of the, if not the most, misunderstood animals in the world. They have so many uses and are an essential part of the ecosystems they are part of.

One example is poachers, where vultures eat carcasses, authorities in Africa are able to follow the vultures and find, arrest and convict poachers for their crimes. This is because the vultures know that the poachers are going to kill an animal and leave its remains and are smart enough to track them, even into populated areas (such as marketplaces, etc.).

Sadly, this is causing the poachers to take the body parts that they want from the animals and then dousing the bodies with poison to kill off the vultures and other scavengers who will eat the body.

Another is that they bring attention to the carcasses for other scavengers to find. Often the vultures who get to the carcasses first, aren’t strong enough to get through the hide to whatever it is they can eat, so they circle around above the carcass and allow other scavengers to come and join in. This makes vulture vital to other animals eating and surviving and if we lose all wild vultures, we will likely lose a lot more of the ecosystem than we think.

The best thing to do for this topic is talk about it, spread awareness for what a pivotal role the species play in the wider ecosystem and get others to talk about it too.