Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Why should you never scare a vulture?

Transcript

Why should you never scare a vulture? · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
0:04
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
0:13
Speaker 1: Josh Clark. There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. We both look
0:16
Speaker 1: like we're in some sort of fight club because our
0:19
Speaker 1: hair is equally short. Things. Yeah, I got the summer
0:21
Speaker 1: buzz cut. Let's see your finger nails. You keep him
0:24
Speaker 1: trim while I chew the nails, you know. Yeah, I
0:26
Speaker 1: got my trimp too. Okay. Is that one of the
0:28
Speaker 1: rules of fight club. I didn't know that when I
0:31
Speaker 1: was scratching. It wasn't a rule, it was it was
0:34
Speaker 1: one of the reasons to keep your finger nails trimmed
0:37
Speaker 1: in your hair cut. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm
0:39
Speaker 1: gonna bring back. I saw Gangs of New York the
0:42
Speaker 1: other day again, the fish hook when the guy fish
0:45
Speaker 1: hooks the dude. That's a classic move in like old
0:48
Speaker 1: school fighting. Yeah, Like you put your fisticuffs up and
0:52
Speaker 1: then if you get ahold of a guy, you're gonna
0:53
Speaker 1: give him the fish hook. You're bringing that back, huh.
0:55
Speaker 1: I'm bringing back the tractice on me and I even
0:58
Speaker 1: practiced on myself a little bit because I was like,
1:00
Speaker 1: is that really an effective move and it hurts and yeah, yeah,
1:04
Speaker 1: it hurts me right now, just trying to I'm gonna
1:06
Speaker 1: bring back vertically striped pants. Okay, okay and official qu um, So,
1:12
Speaker 1: how are you doing. It's been a little while. Uh No,
1:15
Speaker 1: it's been what three or four days? In the magic
1:18
Speaker 1: of podcast releases, we're right on schedule. Okay. I have
1:22
Speaker 1: a story for you. It's tragic, but it's interesting and
1:26
Speaker 1: it relates to what we're talking about, like any good
1:28
Speaker 1: intro ship. So uh. In April April two, a woman
1:35
Speaker 1: was she was hiking through the Pyrenees in France with
1:39
Speaker 1: a couple of friends and she lost her footing and
1:42
Speaker 1: she fell about three d to her death obviously, and um,
1:50
Speaker 1: of course her friends were like, oh my god. They
1:52
Speaker 1: probably said something like soccer blue or something like that,
1:55
Speaker 1: and contacted the authorities, and the authorities got out there
1:59
Speaker 1: pretty quick. Within forty five minutes, they located and reached
2:02
Speaker 1: her dead body. But what they found was nothing but
2:07
Speaker 1: her bones and her tattered clothing and shoes for five minutes.
2:11
Speaker 1: Within forty five minutes, the local griffin vultures had picked
2:16
Speaker 1: the woman clean. She went from being alive to forty
2:19
Speaker 1: five minutes later being a skeleton, and as gruesome as
2:22
Speaker 1: that is, it's actually a really good sign if you
2:26
Speaker 1: are pulling for healthy vulture populations. Yeah, and you know
2:30
Speaker 1: what that actually dispels a myth right off the bat
2:34
Speaker 1: vultures actually prefer fresh meat. Yeah, they don't necessarily like
2:39
Speaker 1: rotten flesh, but they will eat rotten flesh. But they
2:44
Speaker 1: prefer fresh meat of a dead carcas though. Right now,
2:48
Speaker 1: the reason why there were so many vultures, why they
2:50
Speaker 1: were able to pick this woman clean, is because there's
2:53
Speaker 1: a lot of griffin vultures in France. And the reason
2:57
Speaker 1: there's a lot, and the reason that they're hungry is
3:00
Speaker 1: because the French government says you can't shoot these vultures,
3:03
Speaker 1: leave them alone. And also farmers burn your dead livestock.
3:08
Speaker 1: So you have a bunch of vultures that are protected
3:10
Speaker 1: from humans, which is their number one predator, who are
3:13
Speaker 1: hungry because their food supplies being burned by said humans.
3:17
Speaker 1: So when an unlucky humans slips and losers are footing
3:20
Speaker 1: in the Pyrenees, the vultures pick dead body cleaning forty
3:23
Speaker 1: five minutes. That's pretty quick. Now, follow me chuck over
3:27
Speaker 1: to Nepal. The Himalayas very nice. Back in the mountains,
3:31
Speaker 1: it is. Did you I got my magic carpet clean?
3:34
Speaker 1: It is very nice. It smells like a new car.
3:36
Speaker 1: I had a new car sent spread on it, a
3:38
Speaker 1: coconut new car. Um. So in the Himalayas, you've got
3:43
Speaker 1: two different groups of the Zoroasters and the Tibetan Buddhists. Yeah,
3:49
Speaker 1: and they hate each other. They are into sky burials,
3:52
Speaker 1: remember those, Okay, So you want to refresh everybody with
3:56
Speaker 1: sky burialists. Yeah. Sky burial Uh. It's basically when you
4:00
Speaker 1: you leave your loved one's body out in a field
4:03
Speaker 1: for the vultures to pick clean. Right, And Zoroasters and
4:08
Speaker 1: Buddhists both believe that you shouldn't just bury a dead body,
4:12
Speaker 1: shouldn't crement a dead body of pollutes the earth. So
4:14
Speaker 1: you give it to the vultures, which are kind of
4:16
Speaker 1: these spiritual beings in both religions, and they poop in
4:19
Speaker 1: that polluts the earth. The problem. The problem is is
4:23
Speaker 1: there are so few vultures in the Himalayas these days
4:26
Speaker 1: that they can't take care of the dead bodies that
4:29
Speaker 1: they put out there. So the Zoroasters and Buddhists are
4:33
Speaker 1: having to like ship them out of the country really,
4:35
Speaker 1: so they're not even able to perform sky burials. No,
4:38
Speaker 1: they do, but I mean it's not they're not fulfilled
4:42
Speaker 1: because there's not enough vultures. The reason why there's not
4:45
Speaker 1: enough fulters, we found out in two thousand six is
4:48
Speaker 1: because of an non steroidal anti inflammatory drug called uh DI. Nice. Yeah,
4:57
Speaker 1: and there are twenty three species total worldwide. Vulture on
5:02
Speaker 1: every continent but Australia and Antarctica, which I was surprised
5:06
Speaker 1: in Australia, man, that's like, I bet they would have
5:09
Speaker 1: a ball out there, you know, vulture central. Yeah, it's
5:12
Speaker 1: just wide open territory and dead bodies everywhere, especially if
5:17
Speaker 1: Nick Cave has anything exactly and uh sadly fourteen of
5:21
Speaker 1: those species are endangered or threatened at this point. Uh.
5:25
Speaker 1: And the dike Lofak is a big culprit. It's um
5:29
Speaker 1: ranchers used it too on their cattle and then the
5:33
Speaker 1: vultures would eat and just like from one eating of
5:37
Speaker 1: dead cows, would you know kill the vultures. Yeah, it
5:39
Speaker 1: gave him a kidney failure. Yeah, And like the vultures
5:42
Speaker 1: would be on their perches and just fall over dead,
5:44
Speaker 1: and it wiped out three different species of vultures. Eastern
5:50
Speaker 1: Old World vultures of the three species were just wiped out. Yeah,
5:55
Speaker 1: I got ninety nine. Actually, Um, the good news is
5:59
Speaker 1: is they ban it in two thousand six in India,
6:02
Speaker 1: and in two thousand and twelve it actually the population
6:06
Speaker 1: increased for the first time in many, many many years,
6:10
Speaker 1: So they're slightly on the uptick in that area of
6:14
Speaker 1: the world at least. But it was a huge like
6:17
Speaker 1: mystery of what was going on, you know, what was
6:19
Speaker 1: killing the vultures, And luckily for these vultures, their populations
6:23
Speaker 1: were dwindling in India. Indians very much prize the vulture
6:28
Speaker 1: as like a necessary creature to create, I guess, or
6:33
Speaker 1: promote sanitary conditions in nature. Yeah. Well, I mean, if
6:37
Speaker 1: if they're eating the sick animals, then the sick animal
6:41
Speaker 1: bacteria isn't going to get into the ground and leach
6:44
Speaker 1: into the water. And if there are no vultures around
6:47
Speaker 1: there potentially could be like spikes and disease and things.
6:49
Speaker 1: So they're actually really necessary, they really are. Not only
6:52
Speaker 1: are there spikes and disease. Um, vultures kind of take
6:56
Speaker 1: it for the team. The team being the rest of
6:59
Speaker 1: the earth. They step in and they interseed. Like you said,
7:02
Speaker 1: like if if there's a cow with some with antwers
7:04
Speaker 1: or something, a vulture eats the carcass. But the vultures
7:08
Speaker 1: digestive system is tuned to this acidity level that will
7:12
Speaker 1: kill most, if not all, of whatever disease that cattle had,
7:17
Speaker 1: and so it breaks the chain of infectious diseases. And
7:21
Speaker 1: so you think of vultures is like these very dirty animals,
7:24
Speaker 1: but they actually are performing this really specific and important
7:28
Speaker 1: ecological service to the rest of the world. Yeah, and
7:32
Speaker 1: we'll get to some more like vultures are clean facts
7:35
Speaker 1: and which don't necessarily sound like like vultures are clean. Well,
7:40
Speaker 1: we'll tell you we don't want to. Yeah, they're cleaner
7:42
Speaker 1: than you think exactly. That's a good way to say.
7:44
Speaker 1: And also you were saying like they if the vultures
7:47
Speaker 1: aren't around, disease cannot break. Not only that there, the
7:52
Speaker 1: service that they perform is so vital it is it's
7:56
Speaker 1: a service to an extent, like they're basically nature's up crew,
8:01
Speaker 1: and they do it by eating rotting flesh, and they
8:04
Speaker 1: do it really quick like in sky burials before the
8:08
Speaker 1: decimation of the um of the Eastern species, the Indian
8:13
Speaker 1: species um. They could take care of a dead body
8:17
Speaker 1: in like thirty minutes. Thirty minutes. There's no other species
8:21
Speaker 1: that can do that, and so this service, it is
8:24
Speaker 1: a service that they provide vultures in. It makes so
8:28
Speaker 1: much sense evolutionarily speaking, that the Old World species, right
8:34
Speaker 1: that are in the Eastern hemisphere and the New World
8:37
Speaker 1: species that are in the Western hemisphere are not related.
8:41
Speaker 1: They co evolved two of the same thing, evolved from
8:46
Speaker 1: two different groups of animals. They're not related. So it's
8:49
Speaker 1: almost like nature is like, yeah, this is never gonna
8:53
Speaker 1: happen with these birds are never gonna spread, but we're
8:55
Speaker 1: gonna need him over here, so let's just have everything
8:58
Speaker 1: evolved into vultures. Vultus came up separately on two different
9:02
Speaker 1: sizes of the world. That's how important. They are. Very important.
9:06
Speaker 1: The Old World vultures which are Eastern Hemisphere, like we
9:09
Speaker 1: just said, they're twelve species of those and they are
9:14
Speaker 1: related to hawks and eagles. They they nest with sticks
9:16
Speaker 1: and things like you might see a vulture nest like
9:19
Speaker 1: sticking out on a log, sticking out from a cliff,
9:21
Speaker 1: like it's a cartoon or something. That's how I imagine
9:25
Speaker 1: it Western hemisphere of a here is where we have
9:28
Speaker 1: the New World ones, very progressive vultures. They don't build
9:32
Speaker 1: nest and they're just like, we're not into that because
9:34
Speaker 1: we're we We like mid century modern digs and like
9:38
Speaker 1: the California condor especially. Yeah, and you know the condor
9:42
Speaker 1: is uh his rebounding to talk about in danger. They
9:46
Speaker 1: dip to a low of twenty five and the nineteen
9:48
Speaker 1: eighties and now as there are four hundred and five,
9:52
Speaker 1: and they're pretty awesome. They're wingspans get to be like
9:55
Speaker 1: nine ft across. Yeah, I think that it's not the
9:58
Speaker 1: California condor, but gets one in Africa can get as
10:01
Speaker 1: high as a leaven, as white as a lemon. That's
10:04
Speaker 1: a big bird, man. Yeah, it's huge, Like the bird
10:06
Speaker 1: could take you down. Yeah. And I think people don't
10:08
Speaker 1: like vultures because hey, they feed on carrion and it's
10:11
Speaker 1: sort of gross. People think another myth that they circle
10:15
Speaker 1: dying animals, just waiting for them to die. It's not true.
10:19
Speaker 1: But because they circle, and because like a California condor
10:22
Speaker 1: can circle up to like fifteen thousand feet that's amazing
10:25
Speaker 1: it is. But they smell these things, right, It depends
10:28
Speaker 1: they have either really great site, really great smell, or both.
10:32
Speaker 1: So in North America Turkey vultures have incredible sense of smell.
10:37
Speaker 1: But there are New World species and they're unrelated to
10:39
Speaker 1: Old World species, so it can go either way, but
10:41
Speaker 1: typically to either their site or their smell. That's really
10:43
Speaker 1: really great. Yeah. I like the ones that are that
10:47
Speaker 1: look like they're wearing feather boas they are completely naked
10:51
Speaker 1: on the neck and head and then just have the
10:52
Speaker 1: big puffy black feathers around the neck. Well, let's talk
10:55
Speaker 1: about that. Why Why are vultures featherless on the head? Uh?
11:01
Speaker 1: Hygiene because they're sticking those heads and necks into carrying
11:05
Speaker 1: and rotted flesh. And it's actually just you know, it's
11:09
Speaker 1: a nature's way of saying, I don't want your your feathers,
11:12
Speaker 1: your nice feathers to get covered with blood and guts,
11:15
Speaker 1: so it's actually sanitary. Um. They don't sing either. That's
11:20
Speaker 1: another reason vultures get a bad rap. There's no like
11:23
Speaker 1: vulture song like other people do, like singing birds, you know,
11:27
Speaker 1: Vulters grunt and hiss apparently are like the two sounds
11:29
Speaker 1: they make, and that's not gonna get you very far
11:32
Speaker 1: if you're covered, if you're bald, wearing a feather, boa
11:34
Speaker 1: grunting and hissing, and you're covered in like blood and guts,
11:37
Speaker 1: people aren't gonna be like, what a nice bird. Well, yeah,
11:40
Speaker 1: it's not, and it's not just people to like. Apparently,
11:43
Speaker 1: animals kind of vultures are like on the outskirts of
11:46
Speaker 1: all organisms, Like they have no natural predators, um any predators.
11:52
Speaker 1: Predators they do have are like egg hunting predate predators.
11:56
Speaker 1: They don't go after the vulture, they go after the
11:58
Speaker 1: eggs and the like. You will once in a while
12:01
Speaker 1: in times of extreme famine and hardship find like a
12:05
Speaker 1: big cat attacking a vulture, but for the most part,
12:09
Speaker 1: everything just leaves vultures alone. Humans, bobcats, everybody just wants
12:13
Speaker 1: vultures discuss to stay over there and eat your rotting, fleshy,
12:16
Speaker 1: disgusting things. Yeah, and there they're considered birds of prey,
12:20
Speaker 1: even though they rarely feed on live animals, even though
12:23
Speaker 1: they will if they get hungry enough they will. Yeah,
12:26
Speaker 1: they apparently in France, where you can't kill a vulture
12:29
Speaker 1: and you have to burn your lives style attacking. Yeah,
12:32
Speaker 1: they're taking away live animals, and that's specific to Old
12:36
Speaker 1: world vultures. They have a grasping foot so they can
12:40
Speaker 1: carry away things like babies. Like you said, a New
12:43
Speaker 1: world vultures are more like chickens and they can run,
12:46
Speaker 1: but they can't grasp. Yeah, and I don't even think
12:48
Speaker 1: the ones with the grasping feet are like they're still
12:51
Speaker 1: not meant to grasp that much, right, Like from what
12:54
Speaker 1: I read the talents even on the ones that are
12:57
Speaker 1: able to do so, it's not like an eagle or
12:59
Speaker 1: or a barn owl or anything. They can like snatch
13:02
Speaker 1: your cat off your back deck. Um, So no feathers
13:06
Speaker 1: on the head or neck. It's sanitary. And believe it
13:10
Speaker 1: or not, what's the other thing that makes them sanitary?
13:12
Speaker 1: The urinate on themselves. What Yeah, it's they pee on
13:16
Speaker 1: their own feet. Yeah, they pee on their feet and
13:18
Speaker 1: legs and it kills bacteria. It keeps them cool like
13:22
Speaker 1: our sweat does. Yeah, because that the digestive system that
13:25
Speaker 1: has such a high acidity is transferred to their urine.
13:30
Speaker 1: And when they pee on their feet, they're basically cleaning
13:33
Speaker 1: off all of the nasty bacteria that got on their
13:36
Speaker 1: feet from crawling around the inside of a zebra or something. Yeah,
13:40
Speaker 1: I'm proud of you for saying urinate and urine. Uh
13:45
Speaker 1: you know what a group of vultures is called? Uh?
13:49
Speaker 1: I love those questions. It's always like, I know what
13:52
Speaker 1: a crow, I know what a group of crows coming?
13:54
Speaker 1: Everyone knows it. What is that a murder? I didn't
13:58
Speaker 1: know everybody knew that. Apparently vulters have a lot of names.
14:02
Speaker 1: They can be. A group is usually called a committee,
14:05
Speaker 1: which they're like we said, they're a necessary service. So
14:09
Speaker 1: that's a committee, a venue, or a volt. And then
14:13
Speaker 1: when sounds familiar, the vaulted vultures, when they're in flight,
14:17
Speaker 1: they're known as a kettle, which I thought was interesting.
14:19
Speaker 1: And when they're feeding a group is known as a wake.
14:24
Speaker 1: Thank you jump your Yeah probably so thank you for
14:28
Speaker 1: going off in the woods and doing your thing. All right,
14:32
Speaker 1: So I guess we should get to vulture vomit as
14:34
Speaker 1: if we weren't grossed out enough by eating dead flesh
14:36
Speaker 1: and in yourself. Yeah, because you're saying, like, they they
14:41
Speaker 1: don't sing, they p on themselves. They they feed on
14:45
Speaker 1: dead animals, eat your dead relative. They one other thing
14:48
Speaker 1: that vultures are very much noted for is vomiting in
14:53
Speaker 1: times of stress, and they're freaked out when they feel
14:56
Speaker 1: like they're being preyed upon, when they're startled vull. Sure,
15:00
Speaker 1: we'll throw up. It's called defensive vomiting. No, hold hold on,
15:03
Speaker 1: hold on. I think now it's a good time for
15:05
Speaker 1: a little message break, okay, and then we'll talk about
15:08
Speaker 1: defensive vomiting. I promise, m hm. Back to vomit. Yeah.
15:17
Speaker 1: When they when they throw up, they can get away
15:21
Speaker 1: a lot quicker. Yeah, Like I just ate four pounds
15:23
Speaker 1: of cat meat and I just puped it up so
15:25
Speaker 1: I can fly out of here quickly, exactly. So that's one.
15:28
Speaker 1: That's one reason that avian biologists think that they throw
15:33
Speaker 1: up defensively. The other one is this it's a decoy.
15:37
Speaker 1: It's a present to their predator, like don't eat me,
15:40
Speaker 1: eat this. Yeah, And a lot of predators, more often
15:44
Speaker 1: than not, we'll eat whatever they vomited back up because
15:47
Speaker 1: it's not always like digested flesh. It can be something
15:51
Speaker 1: like a big bite of meat that they just you know,
15:54
Speaker 1: showed um very recently because that's how they feed their
15:58
Speaker 1: little baby vulture. So it's it's regurgitation like many birds do.
16:02
Speaker 1: So it may not be so different for an eagle
16:04
Speaker 1: to swoop down and say like, hey, that cat meat
16:07
Speaker 1: looks like it's just you just vomited it up and
16:09
Speaker 1: you just ate it. So what's the big deal? Right,
16:11
Speaker 1: And eagles actually do. Bald eagles specifically love to eat
16:15
Speaker 1: vulture vomit, which is weird because think about this, like,
16:19
Speaker 1: the bald eagle is a revered animal, but it's not bald.
16:23
Speaker 1: The vulture is, and that it eats vulture vomit. Vultures
16:29
Speaker 1: do the vomiting. Yeah, it's like turning everything just on
16:33
Speaker 1: its head. You're anti American. Uh So the other cool
16:39
Speaker 1: thing I guess you might say about vulture vomit is
16:42
Speaker 1: it's actually a defense in that it's highly acidic. Like
16:46
Speaker 1: we're talking pH levels between one and two, which is
16:49
Speaker 1: more than gastric and hydrochloric acid in our own stomach
16:53
Speaker 1: and more corrosive than acid rain. So like that's some
16:57
Speaker 1: acidic vomit. Yeah, I mean it's more crosive than acid rain.
17:00
Speaker 1: It's like, um, if you if you, I guess poured
17:04
Speaker 1: acid rain on something, though, you'd be like, you're gonna
17:07
Speaker 1: this will eventually do something to you. Maybe this is
17:12
Speaker 1: this is if you're a statue, this is going to
17:15
Speaker 1: harm you in thirty years. Well we're talking pH levels. Yeah,
17:19
Speaker 1: I remember acid rain kills fish in the acid Rain
17:21
Speaker 1: podcast we did so. Yeah. I guess if a fish
17:24
Speaker 1: comes up and scares the vulture, it's in trouble. Or
17:26
Speaker 1: if you bought a goldfish and you filled up your
17:28
Speaker 1: little goldfish ball with acid rain, it might probably it's
17:31
Speaker 1: not good, or vulture vomit, the fish is in trouble.
17:36
Speaker 1: The point is it's highly acidic, and even more so
17:39
Speaker 1: than other birds of preying and carnivorous birds. So like
17:44
Speaker 1: the vultures kick it up a notch. So, and that's
17:47
Speaker 1: that's how the vulture doesn't die from eating bacteria that
17:51
Speaker 1: would probably kill other animals. So chuck. That's also there,
17:56
Speaker 1: um there. Digestive juices are how they avoid getting sick
18:01
Speaker 1: eating things that would like kill you or me. Yeah.
18:03
Speaker 1: See that's a good point because I think people probably
18:05
Speaker 1: wonder how can they eat all this like rancid disease
18:08
Speaker 1: and bacteria rotted flesh. That's how the pH of their
18:12
Speaker 1: stomach most things can't survive. Although they aren't perfect killing
18:17
Speaker 1: microbe killing machines. You can't find traces of, say like
18:21
Speaker 1: antrax spores in their stool after they eat infected meat.
18:25
Speaker 1: But for the most part, the fact that vultures eat
18:29
Speaker 1: things that may contain disease, have the ability to contain
18:33
Speaker 1: that disease, and are naturally reviled by pretty much everything
18:38
Speaker 1: else under the sun, and stay away from everything else.
18:43
Speaker 1: They are really great at breaking the chain of infectious
18:47
Speaker 1: disease in nature. Yeah, and endangered and threatened. So like
18:51
Speaker 1: nice kind of vultures. I would encourage vultures. If you're listening,
18:55
Speaker 1: learn a song or two. Wouldn't hurt you know, maybe, Yeah,
19:00
Speaker 1: I'd like to teach the world to sing that melts
19:02
Speaker 1: everybody's head. Yeah, any carpenter standard, oh for sure. Um.
19:08
Speaker 1: And also it maybe like one Christmas song just with
19:10
Speaker 1: the holidays. That's a great one. Uh. If you have
19:13
Speaker 1: a problem with vultures, still hear me. Now, vultures, in
19:19
Speaker 1: the absence of a healthy vulture population, there are still
19:23
Speaker 1: lots of rotting carcasses, more than there would be if
19:26
Speaker 1: the vultures were around. And where there's rotting carcasses, there's
19:30
Speaker 1: feral dog packs. And where there's feral dog packs. There's rabies,
19:34
Speaker 1: and dogs don't stay away from humans like vultures to.
19:37
Speaker 1: They attack humans. Rat populations blow up to when vultures
19:41
Speaker 1: aren't around, So leave the vultures alone. Good point. I
19:46
Speaker 1: got one more little bit bit for you. Um, they're
19:49
Speaker 1: actually using vultures now in forensic Science in the Journal
19:53
Speaker 1: of Forensic Science International, they took a body out um,
19:56
Speaker 1: researcher Kathleen Katherine Spradley of Texas State University, San Marcos. Oh,
20:03
Speaker 1: they have a body farm. Member. Yep, go Boco the
20:05
Speaker 1: cat Poco, the bobcat. Um. And I actually had to
20:10
Speaker 1: look that one up. Yeah. Um, they have a body farm,
20:15
Speaker 1: like you said, and they recently took a body dumped
20:17
Speaker 1: it out there to see how long it would take
20:20
Speaker 1: vultures to skeletonize it and distribute the remains. Because basically
20:26
Speaker 1: their aim is to see how long it takes vultures
20:30
Speaker 1: to discover a body, how long it takes the vultures
20:34
Speaker 1: to skeletonize it, how far they will distribute the parts, Uh,
20:38
Speaker 1: what they do and don't eat because essentially, when you
20:41
Speaker 1: find a body in the woods, sometimes it can be
20:44
Speaker 1: ravaged and you don't know like Why are there no
20:47
Speaker 1: bite marks? Who ravaged this body? How long has this
20:50
Speaker 1: body been here? Why are we finding body parts all
20:52
Speaker 1: over the places? That's some kind of sick. Oh, that's
20:55
Speaker 1: like tearing these bodies to pieces. So it's uh, it's
20:59
Speaker 1: a forensics studdy and um. They got a video camera
21:02
Speaker 1: triggered by motion and it took thirty seven days actually
21:06
Speaker 1: to be triggered, and thirty a thirty strong wake of
21:10
Speaker 1: American black vultures took care of the body in five hours,
21:15
Speaker 1: and both of those results surprised, like how long it
21:18
Speaker 1: took them to get there and how long it took
21:21
Speaker 1: him to skeletonize it, because it's like way longer than usual.
21:24
Speaker 1: Like we said, yeah, well three can take care of
21:27
Speaker 1: a body in like thirty minutes, so thirty and five
21:30
Speaker 1: hours it's not too bad. Yeah, they thought it was
21:32
Speaker 1: a little long. Um. And then they got a spatial
21:34
Speaker 1: pattern of the discarded body parts snapped it with the
21:36
Speaker 1: GPS over fifteen weeks, and they're hoping that this pattern
21:40
Speaker 1: like aids you know, forensics in the future. How far
21:44
Speaker 1: has it gone? Do they say? No? They didn't say
21:47
Speaker 1: pretty interesting though, Yeah, that's very interesting. Forensics vultures saving
21:51
Speaker 1: people from being unfairly accused of being a grizzly serial killer. Exactly. Um. Also,
21:58
Speaker 1: one last thing, if you are interest did and probably
22:01
Speaker 1: are flushed with cash, you can go paragliding with vultures
22:04
Speaker 1: in the Himalayas. There's a man who's trained vultures. So
22:08
Speaker 1: you go flying on you know, a para sale. You
22:11
Speaker 1: fly attached to a vulture. No, you fly attached to
22:15
Speaker 1: the dude who trained the vultures in a ParaSail, and
22:18
Speaker 1: the vultures like hang around. Yeah, they fly around you.
22:20
Speaker 1: They said, it's like swimming with dolphins, but like five
22:23
Speaker 1: thousand feet in the air, and they will eat buffalo
22:25
Speaker 1: meat out of your hand, Like they land on your
22:27
Speaker 1: arm and eat and then like fly around and they're
22:30
Speaker 1: like thank you. One of them's name is Kevin the vulture.
22:33
Speaker 1: Really well, they let you paraglide with buffalo meat dangling
22:38
Speaker 1: from your ankles. Maybe probably man, this is I'd like
22:44
Speaker 1: to do that. That's now on my bucket list on
22:46
Speaker 1: the chucket list, the chucket list. Uh is that it? Okay,
22:50
Speaker 1: there's everything about vultures that we can find everybody. We
22:53
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed it. And uh, let's say, if you
22:56
Speaker 1: want to learn more about vultures, type vulture into the
22:58
Speaker 1: search part. How stiff works out cam And since I
23:01
Speaker 1: said that, it means it's time for a message break.
23:10
Speaker 1: And how about some listener mail. Huh yeah, this one
23:13
Speaker 1: is sort of long now that I'm looking at it.
23:15
Speaker 1: But oh wait, wait before we do that, can I
23:18
Speaker 1: plug somebody? Okay, so, um, we are not sure. I
23:22
Speaker 1: don't think we did plug this guy before we're plugging
23:24
Speaker 1: them again. Ok. Yeah, what's the hard exactly. Thomas Trask
23:28
Speaker 1: was one of the finalists in our Halloween horror fiction
23:32
Speaker 1: contests that we held last year, right, and we said,
23:34
Speaker 1: anybody who made it in the Sweet sixteen, or actually
23:37
Speaker 1: I think anybody who entered UM. If you want on
23:40
Speaker 1: to publish anything, let us know and we will plug.
23:42
Speaker 1: So Thomas Trask did just that. He wrote a book
23:46
Speaker 1: called Prism. It's a sci fi fantasy UM and it's
23:49
Speaker 1: on Amazon and you can buy it as paperback or kindle.
23:54
Speaker 1: So it's Thomas Trask with Prism. And uh, it's probably
23:58
Speaker 1: pretty sweet because he wrote one of my favorite UM stories,
24:02
Speaker 1: Quantum Suicide of Alice Walker. Yeah, that was a good one.
24:04
Speaker 1: It was mine. Bending I would strongly recommend anything. Trask
24:09
Speaker 1: rights frankly. Okay, now, uh it's time for some listener.
24:13
Speaker 1: Now how about that? Yeah, this is an oldie. It's
24:15
Speaker 1: about tipping, but it's a pretty good tipping story. Uh
24:19
Speaker 1: it's a bartender in Vancouver. Did you read this one? No? No,
24:22
Speaker 1: it's just every time I go into a coffee place
24:24
Speaker 1: now and I don't tip them, I'm like, I, do
24:27
Speaker 1: you listen to the podcast? Um? All right, guys. I
24:31
Speaker 1: was working for an upstale cocktail cocktail bar in downtown Vancouver.
24:35
Speaker 1: Great relaxing, cool atmosphere. Three dudes walk in Friday nights
24:38
Speaker 1: at the bar, and uh, we're part of the bachelor party.
24:42
Speaker 1: Being a bartender, I'm pretty used to this, and I
24:44
Speaker 1: realized there could be a lot of money made if
24:46
Speaker 1: I take care of these guys. Uh. To confirm it,
24:48
Speaker 1: one of the three guys did one of these numbers
24:50
Speaker 1: where he says, we're gonna be here having fun this weekend.
24:54
Speaker 1: We're gonna take care of you if you give us
24:56
Speaker 1: some special attention. You know that guy? So I went
24:59
Speaker 1: and put buffalo meat on my ankles. Uh. They ordered
25:03
Speaker 1: cocktails and beers ordered in rounds. I made sure I
25:05
Speaker 1: knew their orders, their names, and gave them new drinks
25:08
Speaker 1: when they were getting low. Basically gave them really good attention.
25:11
Speaker 1: Needless to say, it was great service. At the end
25:13
Speaker 1: of the night, after all the shots and drinks, bill
25:16
Speaker 1: was about eight hundred bucks. The very same guy he
25:18
Speaker 1: told me I'd be taken care of, paid with this
25:20
Speaker 1: credit card full, handed me a bill hold and inside
25:23
Speaker 1: was a nickel five cents. Saturday night comes around nine pm,
25:28
Speaker 1: same guys roll in. I thought about what happened the
25:31
Speaker 1: night before and decided to be a good person, be
25:33
Speaker 1: the better man, and greeted them by name and the smile,
25:36
Speaker 1: brought out their usual drinks, acted like everything was normal,
25:38
Speaker 1: even though I was being eaten alive inside. By the
25:41
Speaker 1: time their bill came, it was even more than the
25:43
Speaker 1: night before. Tonight another nickel, So that's ten cents on
25:48
Speaker 1: sevent bucks. Sunday night rolls around. What do you know,
25:51
Speaker 1: the philanthropist roll in still aggravated. I was firmed that
25:54
Speaker 1: I would be the better person still and act like
25:57
Speaker 1: it didn't affect me. Oh yeah, man, I would be
25:59
Speaker 1: spitting and so many drinks. Even if it was despite them,
26:03
Speaker 1: I was still gonna be nice drinks for shaking Beer's
26:06
Speaker 1: report around eight hundred bucks. Again another nickel. Monday comes around.
26:10
Speaker 1: The same guy comes in, UH on the day shift
26:15
Speaker 1: and UH, thinking that they're starting early, asked if he
26:17
Speaker 1: wanted there as usual. He said no, he was alone,
26:20
Speaker 1: wouldn't be long. He sat down, pulled out an envelope,
26:23
Speaker 1: put it on the bar. He told me really wanted
26:24
Speaker 1: to give his friend a great bachelor party and had
26:26
Speaker 1: heard great things about the bar. He'd never met someone
26:29
Speaker 1: more professional and welcoming, even when they made nothing out
26:32
Speaker 1: of it. He told me that he has gone to
26:34
Speaker 1: a few bars and done this in the past, and Uh,
26:37
Speaker 1: it got to the point at some places where they
26:39
Speaker 1: wouldn't even serve them on the second night. Yet I
26:41
Speaker 1: acted like nothing had ever happened. He really appreciated this,
26:45
Speaker 1: thank me, and pointed at the envelope. Envelope so it
26:48
Speaker 1: was for me, and walked out. Almost didn't want to
26:50
Speaker 1: open it, but I'm thinking it would be another nickel.
26:53
Speaker 1: Inside was two thousand dollars. I couldn't believe it. I
26:56
Speaker 1: was ready to kill these people all weekend, and I
26:58
Speaker 1: just made two grand for keeping my cool. And that
27:00
Speaker 1: man was don cheatle or family man. I figured you
27:04
Speaker 1: might find it interesting. And that is Brett from Vancouver.
27:07
Speaker 1: He still has the nickels, And I say, good for
27:11
Speaker 1: you too, grand Tip. And I also say, what a
27:14
Speaker 1: jerk to put this guy through this as some sort
27:17
Speaker 1: of like twisted test of how nice a bartender can be. Right,
27:22
Speaker 1: he's really like using the the man social power dynamic
27:27
Speaker 1: between customer and nothing funny about it or fun about it.
27:31
Speaker 1: And you're really done this before and people have treated
27:33
Speaker 1: me like a jerk according like yeah, and he's really
27:35
Speaker 1: risking having things put in his drink too, Like I
27:38
Speaker 1: just don't get it. So I would go walk in
27:40
Speaker 1: and say on day one this two grand is yours
27:43
Speaker 1: at the end of the weekend, if you take care
27:44
Speaker 1: of us, yeah, like do the opposite, yeah, I mean
27:47
Speaker 1: definitely yeah, or just tip like a normal person. Yeah
27:52
Speaker 1: you can just do that and don't play games. Yeah
27:53
Speaker 1: every time? All right, Yeah, that's a funch of things. Story.
27:58
Speaker 1: That's a good's a good um. Good for you. What
28:01
Speaker 1: was the name of Brett from Vancouver? Way to go Brett, um.
28:05
Speaker 1: If you have a good story about how somebody mistreated
28:08
Speaker 1: you and then treated you well in the end, but
28:11
Speaker 1: you're not still sure if that made up for everything?
28:13
Speaker 1: We want to hear that story. You can tweet to
28:16
Speaker 1: us at s y s K podcast. You can join
28:18
Speaker 1: us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
28:21
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
28:23
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com and check out our website. It's awesome.
28:27
Speaker 1: It's called Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more
28:35
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, is it how
28:38
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com with over a hundred thousand titles
28:47
Speaker 1: to choose from. Audible dot com, as a leading provider
28:50
Speaker 1: of downloadable digital audio books and spoken word entertainment. Go
28:53
Speaker 1: to audible podcast dot com slash no stuff k n
28:57
Speaker 1: o W S t u f F to get a
29:00
Speaker 1: free audio book download of your choice when you sign
29:02
Speaker 1: up today.