Why should you never scare a vulture?

was scratching. It wasn't a rule, it was it was one of the reasons to keep your finger nails trimmed in your hair cut. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm gonna bring back. I saw Gangs of New York the other day again, the fish hook when the guy fish hooks the dude. That's a classic move in like old school fighting. Yeah, Like you put your fisticuffs up and then if you get ahold of a guy, you're gonna give him the fish hook. You're bringing that back, huh.

I'm bringing back the tractice on me and I even practiced on myself a little bit because I was like, is that really an effective move and it hurts and yeah, yeah, it hurts me right now, just trying to I'm gonna bring back vertically striped pants. Okay, okay and official qu um, So, how are you doing. It's been a little while. Uh No, it's been what three or four days? In the magic of podcast releases, we're right on schedule. Okay. I have

a story for you. It's tragic, but it's interesting and it relates to what we're talking about, like any good intro ship. So uh. In April April two, a woman was she was hiking through the Pyrenees in France with a couple of friends and she lost her footing and she fell about three d to her death obviously, and um, of course her friends were like, oh my god. They probably said something like soccer blue or something like that, and contacted the authorities, and the authorities got out there

pretty quick. Within forty five minutes, they located and reached her dead body. But what they found was nothing but her bones and her tattered clothing and shoes for five minutes. Within forty five minutes, the local griffin vultures had picked the woman clean. She went from being alive to forty five minutes later being a skeleton, and as gruesome as that is, it's actually a really good sign if you

are pulling for healthy vulture populations. Yeah, and you know what that actually dispels a myth right off the bat vultures actually prefer fresh meat. Yeah, they don't necessarily like rotten flesh, but they will eat rotten flesh. But they prefer fresh meat of a dead carcas though. Right now, the reason why there were so many vultures, why they were able to pick this woman clean, is because there's

a lot of griffin vultures in France. And the reason there's a lot, and the reason that they're hungry is because the French government says you can't shoot these vultures, leave them alone. And also farmers burn your dead livestock. So you have a bunch of vultures that are protected from humans, which is their number one predator, who are hungry because their food supplies being burned by said humans.

So when an unlucky humans slips and losers are footing in the Pyrenees, the vultures pick dead body cleaning forty five minutes. That's pretty quick. Now, follow me chuck over to Nepal. The Himalayas very nice. Back in the mountains, it is. Did you I got my magic carpet clean? It is very nice. It smells like a new car. I had a new car sent spread on it, a coconut new car. Um. So in the Himalayas, you've got two different groups of the Zoroasters and the Tibetan Buddhists. Yeah,

and they hate each other. They are into sky burials, remember those, Okay, So you want to refresh everybody with sky burialists. Yeah. Sky burial Uh. It's basically when you you leave your loved one's body out in a field for the vultures to pick clean. Right, And Zoroasters and Buddhists both believe that you shouldn't just bury a dead body,

shouldn't crement a dead body of pollutes the earth. So you give it to the vultures, which are kind of these spiritual beings in both religions, and they poop in that polluts the earth. The problem. The problem is is there are so few vultures in the Himalayas these days that they can't take care of the dead bodies that they put out there. So the Zoroasters and Buddhists are having to like ship them out of the country really,

so they're not even able to perform sky burials. No, they do, but I mean it's not they're not fulfilled because there's not enough vultures. The reason why there's not enough fulters, we found out in two thousand six is because of an non steroidal anti inflammatory drug called uh DI. Nice. Yeah, and there are twenty three species total worldwide. Vulture on every continent but Australia and Antarctica, which I was surprised in Australia, man, that's like, I bet they would have

a ball out there, you know, vulture central. Yeah, it's just wide open territory and dead bodies everywhere, especially if Nick Cave has anything exactly and uh sadly fourteen of those species are endangered or threatened at this point. Uh. And the dike Lofak is a big culprit. It's um ranchers used it too on their cattle and then the vultures would eat and just like from one eating of dead cows, would you know kill the vultures. Yeah, it

gave him a kidney failure. Yeah, And like the vultures would be on their perches and just fall over dead, and it wiped out three different species of vultures. Eastern Old World vultures of the three species were just wiped out. Yeah, I got ninety nine. Actually, Um, the good news is is they ban it in two thousand six in India, and in two thousand and twelve it actually the population increased for the first time in many, many many years, So they're slightly on the uptick in that area of

the world at least. But it was a huge like mystery of what was going on, you know, what was killing the vultures, And luckily for these vultures, their populations were dwindling in India. Indians very much prize the vulture as like a necessary creature to create, I guess, or promote sanitary conditions in nature. Yeah. Well, I mean, if if they're eating the sick animals, then the sick animal bacteria isn't going to get into the ground and leach

into the water. And if there are no vultures around there potentially could be like spikes and disease and things. So they're actually really necessary, they really are. Not only are there spikes and disease. Um, vultures kind of take it for the team. The team being the rest of the earth. They step in and they interseed. Like you said, like if if there's a cow with some with antwers

or something, a vulture eats the carcass. But the vultures digestive system is tuned to this acidity level that will kill most, if not all, of whatever disease that cattle had, and so it breaks the chain of infectious diseases. And so you think of vultures is like these very dirty animals, but they actually are performing this really specific and important ecological service to the rest of the world. Yeah, and we'll get to some more like vultures are clean facts

and which don't necessarily sound like like vultures are clean. Well, we'll tell you we don't want to. Yeah, they're cleaner than you think exactly. That's a good way to say. And also you were saying like they if the vultures

aren't around, disease cannot break. Not only that there, the service that they perform is so vital it is it's a service to an extent, like they're basically nature's up crew, and they do it by eating rotting flesh, and they do it really quick like in sky burials before the decimation of the um of the Eastern species, the Indian species um. They could take care of a dead body in like thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. There's no other species that can do that, and so this service, it is

a service that they provide vultures in. It makes so much sense evolutionarily speaking, that the Old World species, right that are in the Eastern hemisphere and the New World species that are in the Western hemisphere are not related. They co evolved two of the same thing, evolved from

two different groups of animals. They're not related. So it's almost like nature is like, yeah, this is never gonna happen with these birds are never gonna spread, but we're gonna need him over here, so let's just have everything evolved into vultures. Vultus came up separately on two different sizes of the world. That's how important. They are. Very important. The Old World vultures which are Eastern Hemisphere, like we just said, they're twelve species of those and they are

related to hawks and eagles. They they nest with sticks and things like you might see a vulture nest like sticking out on a log, sticking out from a cliff, like it's a cartoon or something. That's how I imagine it Western hemisphere of a here is where we have the New World ones, very progressive vultures. They don't build nest and they're just like, we're not into that because we're we We like mid century modern digs and like the California condor especially. Yeah, and you know the condor

is uh his rebounding to talk about in danger. They dip to a low of twenty five and the nineteen eighties and now as there are four hundred and five, and they're pretty awesome. They're wingspans get to be like nine ft across. Yeah, I think that it's not the California condor, but gets one in Africa can get as high as a leaven, as white as a lemon. That's a big bird, man. Yeah, it's huge, Like the bird

could take you down. Yeah. And I think people don't like vultures because hey, they feed on carrion and it's sort of gross. People think another myth that they circle dying animals, just waiting for them to die. It's not true. But because they circle, and because like a California condor can circle up to like fifteen thousand feet that's amazing it is. But they smell these things, right, It depends they have either really great site, really great smell, or both.

So in North America Turkey vultures have incredible sense of smell. But there are New World species and they're unrelated to Old World species, so it can go either way, but typically to either their site or their smell. That's really really great. Yeah. I like the ones that are that look like they're wearing feather boas they are completely naked on the neck and head and then just have the big puffy black feathers around the neck. Well, let's talk

about that. Why Why are vultures featherless on the head? Uh? Hygiene because they're sticking those heads and necks into carrying and rotted flesh. And it's actually just you know, it's a nature's way of saying, I don't want your your feathers, your nice feathers to get covered with blood and guts, so it's actually sanitary. Um. They don't sing either. That's

another reason vultures get a bad rap. There's no like vulture song like other people do, like singing birds, you know, Vulters grunt and hiss apparently are like the two sounds they make, and that's not gonna get you very far if you're covered, if you're bald, wearing a feather, boa grunting and hissing, and you're covered in like blood and guts, people aren't gonna be like, what a nice bird. Well, yeah,

it's not, and it's not just people to like. Apparently, animals kind of vultures are like on the outskirts of all organisms, Like they have no natural predators, um any predators. Predators they do have are like egg hunting predate predators. They don't go after the vulture, they go after the eggs and the like. You will once in a while in times of extreme famine and hardship find like a big cat attacking a vulture, but for the most part,

everything just leaves vultures alone. Humans, bobcats, everybody just wants vultures discuss to stay over there and eat your rotting, fleshy, disgusting things. Yeah, and there they're considered birds of prey, even though they rarely feed on live animals, even though they will if they get hungry enough they will. Yeah, they apparently in France, where you can't kill a vulture and you have to burn your lives style attacking. Yeah, they're taking away live animals, and that's specific to Old

world vultures. They have a grasping foot so they can carry away things like babies. Like you said, a New world vultures are more like chickens and they can run, but they can't grasp. Yeah, and I don't even think the ones with the grasping feet are like they're still not meant to grasp that much, right, Like from what I read the talents even on the ones that are able to do so, it's not like an eagle or or a barn owl or anything. They can like snatch

your cat off your back deck. Um, So no feathers on the head or neck. It's sanitary. And believe it or not, what's the other thing that makes them sanitary? The urinate on themselves. What Yeah, it's they pee on their own feet. Yeah, they pee on their feet and legs and it kills bacteria. It keeps them cool like our sweat does. Yeah, because that the digestive system that has such a high acidity is transferred to their urine.

And when they pee on their feet, they're basically cleaning off all of the nasty bacteria that got on their feet from crawling around the inside of a zebra or something. Yeah, I'm proud of you for saying urinate and urine. Uh you know what a group of vultures is called? Uh? I love those questions. It's always like, I know what a crow, I know what a group of crows coming? Everyone knows it. What is that a murder? I didn't know everybody knew that. Apparently vulters have a lot of names.

They can be. A group is usually called a committee, which they're like we said, they're a necessary service. So that's a committee, a venue, or a volt. And then when sounds familiar, the vaulted vultures, when they're in flight, they're known as a kettle, which I thought was interesting. And when they're feeding a group is known as a wake. Thank you jump your Yeah probably so thank you for

going off in the woods and doing your thing. All right, So I guess we should get to vulture vomit as if we weren't grossed out enough by eating dead flesh and in yourself. Yeah, because you're saying, like, they they don't sing, they p on themselves. They they feed on dead animals, eat your dead relative. They one other thing that vultures are very much noted for is vomiting in times of stress, and they're freaked out when they feel

like they're being preyed upon, when they're startled vull. Sure, we'll throw up. It's called defensive vomiting. No, hold hold on, hold on. I think now it's a good time for a little message break, okay, and then we'll talk about defensive vomiting. I promise, m hm. Back to vomit. Yeah. When they when they throw up, they can get away a lot quicker. Yeah, Like I just ate four pounds of cat meat and I just puped it up so I can fly out of here quickly, exactly. So that's one.

That's one reason that avian biologists think that they throw up defensively. The other one is this it's a decoy. It's a present to their predator, like don't eat me, eat this. Yeah, And a lot of predators, more often than not, we'll eat whatever they vomited back up because it's not always like digested flesh. It can be something like a big bite of meat that they just you know, showed um very recently because that's how they feed their

little baby vulture. So it's it's regurgitation like many birds do. So it may not be so different for an eagle to swoop down and say like, hey, that cat meat looks like it's just you just vomited it up and you just ate it. So what's the big deal? Right, And eagles actually do. Bald eagles specifically love to eat vulture vomit, which is weird because think about this, like, the bald eagle is a revered animal, but it's not bald. The vulture is, and that it eats vulture vomit. Vultures

do the vomiting. Yeah, it's like turning everything just on its head. You're anti American. Uh So the other cool thing I guess you might say about vulture vomit is it's actually a defense in that it's highly acidic. Like we're talking pH levels between one and two, which is more than gastric and hydrochloric acid in our own stomach and more corrosive than acid rain. So like that's some acidic vomit. Yeah, I mean it's more crosive than acid rain.

It's like, um, if you if you, I guess poured acid rain on something, though, you'd be like, you're gonna this will eventually do something to you. Maybe this is this is if you're a statue, this is going to harm you in thirty years. Well we're talking pH levels. Yeah, I remember acid rain kills fish in the acid Rain podcast we did so. Yeah. I guess if a fish

comes up and scares the vulture, it's in trouble. Or if you bought a goldfish and you filled up your little goldfish ball with acid rain, it might probably it's not good, or vulture vomit, the fish is in trouble. The point is it's highly acidic, and even more so than other birds of preying and carnivorous birds. So like the vultures kick it up a notch. So, and that's that's how the vulture doesn't die from eating bacteria that would probably kill other animals. So chuck. That's also there,

um there. Digestive juices are how they avoid getting sick eating things that would like kill you or me. Yeah. See that's a good point because I think people probably wonder how can they eat all this like rancid disease and bacteria rotted flesh. That's how the pH of their stomach most things can't survive. Although they aren't perfect killing microbe killing machines. You can't find traces of, say like antrax spores in their stool after they eat infected meat.

But for the most part, the fact that vultures eat things that may contain disease, have the ability to contain that disease, and are naturally reviled by pretty much everything else under the sun, and stay away from everything else. They are really great at breaking the chain of infectious disease in nature. Yeah, and endangered and threatened. So like nice kind of vultures. I would encourage vultures. If you're listening,

learn a song or two. Wouldn't hurt you know, maybe, Yeah, I'd like to teach the world to sing that melts everybody's head. Yeah, any carpenter standard, oh for sure. Um. And also it maybe like one Christmas song just with the holidays. That's a great one. Uh. If you have a problem with vultures, still hear me. Now, vultures, in the absence of a healthy vulture population, there are still lots of rotting carcasses, more than there would be if

the vultures were around. And where there's rotting carcasses, there's feral dog packs. And where there's feral dog packs. There's rabies, and dogs don't stay away from humans like vultures to. They attack humans. Rat populations blow up to when vultures aren't around, So leave the vultures alone. Good point. I got one more little bit bit for you. Um, they're actually using vultures now in forensic Science in the Journal of Forensic Science International, they took a body out um,

researcher Kathleen Katherine Spradley of Texas State University, San Marcos. Oh, they have a body farm. Member. Yep, go Boco the cat Poco, the bobcat. Um. And I actually had to look that one up. Yeah. Um, they have a body farm, like you said, and they recently took a body dumped it out there to see how long it would take

vultures to skeletonize it and distribute the remains. Because basically their aim is to see how long it takes vultures to discover a body, how long it takes the vultures to skeletonize it, how far they will distribute the parts, Uh, what they do and don't eat because essentially, when you find a body in the woods, sometimes it can be ravaged and you don't know like Why are there no bite marks? Who ravaged this body? How long has this body been here? Why are we finding body parts all

over the places? That's some kind of sick. Oh, that's like tearing these bodies to pieces. So it's uh, it's a forensics studdy and um. They got a video camera triggered by motion and it took thirty seven days actually to be triggered, and thirty a thirty strong wake of American black vultures took care of the body in five hours, and both of those results surprised, like how long it took them to get there and how long it took him to skeletonize it, because it's like way longer than usual.

Like we said, yeah, well three can take care of a body in like thirty minutes, so thirty and five hours it's not too bad. Yeah, they thought it was a little long. Um. And then they got a spatial pattern of the discarded body parts snapped it with the GPS over fifteen weeks, and they're hoping that this pattern like aids you know, forensics in the future. How far has it gone? Do they say? No? They didn't say pretty interesting though, Yeah, that's very interesting. Forensics vultures saving

people from being unfairly accused of being a grizzly serial killer. Exactly. Um. Also, one last thing, if you are interest did and probably are flushed with cash, you can go paragliding with vultures in the Himalayas. There's a man who's trained vultures. So you go flying on you know, a para sale. You fly attached to a vulture. No, you fly attached to the dude who trained the vultures in a ParaSail, and the vultures like hang around. Yeah, they fly around you.

They said, it's like swimming with dolphins, but like five thousand feet in the air, and they will eat buffalo meat out of your hand, Like they land on your arm and eat and then like fly around and they're like thank you. One of them's name is Kevin the vulture. Really well, they let you paraglide with buffalo meat dangling from your ankles. Maybe probably man, this is I'd like to do that. That's now on my bucket list on the chucket list, the chucket list. Uh is that it? Okay,

there's everything about vultures that we can find everybody. We hope you enjoyed it. And uh, let's say, if you want to learn more about vultures, type vulture into the search part. How stiff works out cam And since I said that, it means it's time for a message break. And how about some listener mail. Huh yeah, this one is sort of long now that I'm looking at it. But oh wait, wait before we do that, can I

plug somebody? Okay, so, um, we are not sure. I don't think we did plug this guy before we're plugging them again. Ok. Yeah, what's the hard exactly. Thomas Trask was one of the finalists in our Halloween horror fiction contests that we held last year, right, and we said, anybody who made it in the Sweet sixteen, or actually I think anybody who entered UM. If you want on to publish anything, let us know and we will plug. So Thomas Trask did just that. He wrote a book

called Prism. It's a sci fi fantasy UM and it's on Amazon and you can buy it as paperback or kindle. So it's Thomas Trask with Prism. And uh, it's probably pretty sweet because he wrote one of my favorite UM stories, Quantum Suicide of Alice Walker. Yeah, that was a good one. It was mine. Bending I would strongly recommend anything. Trask rights frankly. Okay, now, uh it's time for some listener. Now how about that? Yeah, this is an oldie. It's

about tipping, but it's a pretty good tipping story. Uh it's a bartender in Vancouver. Did you read this one? No? No, it's just every time I go into a coffee place now and I don't tip them, I'm like, I, do you listen to the podcast? Um? All right, guys. I was working for an upstale cocktail cocktail bar in downtown Vancouver. Great relaxing, cool atmosphere. Three dudes walk in Friday nights at the bar, and uh, we're part of the bachelor party.

Being a bartender, I'm pretty used to this, and I realized there could be a lot of money made if I take care of these guys. Uh. To confirm it, one of the three guys did one of these numbers where he says, we're gonna be here having fun this weekend. We're gonna take care of you if you give us some special attention. You know that guy? So I went and put buffalo meat on my ankles. Uh. They ordered

cocktails and beers ordered in rounds. I made sure I knew their orders, their names, and gave them new drinks when they were getting low. Basically gave them really good attention. Needless to say, it was great service. At the end of the night, after all the shots and drinks, bill was about eight hundred bucks. The very same guy he told me I'd be taken care of, paid with this credit card full, handed me a bill hold and inside was a nickel five cents. Saturday night comes around nine pm,

same guys roll in. I thought about what happened the night before and decided to be a good person, be the better man, and greeted them by name and the smile, brought out their usual drinks, acted like everything was normal, even though I was being eaten alive inside. By the time their bill came, it was even more than the night before. Tonight another nickel, So that's ten cents on sevent bucks. Sunday night rolls around. What do you know,

the philanthropist roll in still aggravated. I was firmed that I would be the better person still and act like it didn't affect me. Oh yeah, man, I would be spitting and so many drinks. Even if it was despite them, I was still gonna be nice drinks for shaking Beer's report around eight hundred bucks. Again another nickel. Monday comes around. The same guy comes in, UH on the day shift and UH, thinking that they're starting early, asked if he wanted there as usual. He said no, he was alone,

wouldn't be long. He sat down, pulled out an envelope, put it on the bar. He told me really wanted to give his friend a great bachelor party and had heard great things about the bar. He'd never met someone more professional and welcoming, even when they made nothing out of it. He told me that he has gone to a few bars and done this in the past, and Uh, it got to the point at some places where they wouldn't even serve them on the second night. Yet I

acted like nothing had ever happened. He really appreciated this, thank me, and pointed at the envelope. Envelope so it was for me, and walked out. Almost didn't want to open it, but I'm thinking it would be another nickel. Inside was two thousand dollars. I couldn't believe it. I was ready to kill these people all weekend, and I just made two grand for keeping my cool. And that man was don cheatle or family man. I figured you might find it interesting. And that is Brett from Vancouver.

He still has the nickels, And I say, good for you too, grand Tip. And I also say, what a jerk to put this guy through this as some sort of like twisted test of how nice a bartender can be. Right, he's really like using the the man social power dynamic between customer and nothing funny about it or fun about it. And you're really done this before and people have treated me like a jerk according like yeah, and he's really risking having things put in his drink too, Like I

just don't get it. So I would go walk in and say on day one this two grand is yours at the end of the weekend, if you take care of us, yeah, like do the opposite, yeah, I mean definitely yeah, or just tip like a normal person. Yeah you can just do that and don't play games. Yeah every time? All right, Yeah, that's a funch of things. Story. That's a good's a good um. Good for you. What was the name of Brett from Vancouver? Way to go Brett, um.

If you have a good story about how somebody mistreated you and then treated you well in the end, but you're not still sure if that made up for everything? We want to hear that story. You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com and check out our website. It's awesome.

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