I mentioned that we are generally more attracted to animals that are cute because of certain instincts. This is unideal for conservation because it causes us to neglect animals that are not ‘cute’ enough. Conservation efforts for these ‘ugly’ animals tend to be unsuccessful. This can negatively impact our environment.
Vulture conservationists often fail to get funding for their conservation projects because people dislike vultures. We think that vultures are ugly and disgusting scavengers. Judging them only by their looks, we overlook their contributions to the ecosystem.
Did you know that vultures play a critical role in the ecosystem and wildlife conservation?
Don’t judge a book it’s cover! A vulture is more useful than you can imagine!
Vultures as ''disease preventors''
Vultures’ stomachs are extremely acidic, allowing them to digest rotting carcasses. When other scavengers feed on rotting carcasses, they usually get infected with disease and die. Vultures, on the other hand, are especially specialized in digesting those rotting carcasses that might potentially carry diseases. Therefore, vultures help prevent the spread of diseases to other animals and even humans, ensuring the balance of the eco-system.
Vultures as contributors to conservation efforts
Vultures circle around remains of dead animals which help authorities identify illegal poaching activity. Here's an example of how vultures are useful in helping to identify illegal elephant poaching:
When an elephant gets killed, vultures can locate its death within 30 minutes. A skilled poacher takes about 45-70 minutes to chop off two elephant tusks. During this time, authorities around that area could already quickly detect where the illegal poaching is. This is all thanks to the vultures that can detect the death of an elephant way faster than a poacher would take to cut off the animals' parts. All this increases the chances of catching the criminal.
Vultures are very useful, but unfortunately, their population is dwindling.
As they often aid authorities in catching poachers, poachers hate them and poison them. In 2013, over 500 scavenger birds (include vultures) were poisoned from only a single elephant carcass.
Vultures are also indirectly poisoned by farmers. Vultures would eat poisoned carcasses that were meant to distract predatory animals like lions.
As a result of all these, many vultures are now endangered. The negative attitudes people have makes the situation even worse. Their attitudes hamper conservation efforts. People aren’t interested in the plight of ugly animals like vultures. 🙁
As they often aid authorities in catching poachers, poachers hate them and poison them. In 2013, over 500 scavenger birds (include vultures) were poisoned from only a single elephant carcass.
Vultures are also indirectly poisoned by farmers. Vultures would eat poisoned carcasses that were meant to distract predatory animals like lions.
As a result of all these, many vultures are now endangered. The negative attitudes people have makes the situation even worse. Their attitudes hamper conservation efforts. People aren’t interested in the plight of ugly animals like vultures. 🙁
