Vultures get a bad reputation for their carrion-scavenging ways, but their dietary habits prevent the release of greenhouse gases.
Vultures are hard birds for humans to love. They are an obligate scavenger, meaning they get all their food from already dead prey—and that association has cast them as a harbinger of death since ancient times. But in reality, vultures are nature’s flying sanitation crew. And new research adds to that positive picture by detailing these birds’ role in a surprising process: mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Vultures Prevent Tens of Millions of Metric Tons of Carbon Emissions Each Year - Scientific American
Vultures are hard birds for humans to love. They are an obligate scavenger, meaning they get all their food from already dead prey—and that association has cast them as a harbinger of death since ancient times. But in reality, vultures are nature’s flying sanitation crew. And new research adds to that positive picture by detailing these birds’ role in a surprising process: mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Vultures Prevent Tens of Millions of Metric Tons of Carbon Emissions Each Year - Scientific American