Woman Devoured by Vultures…
– – The following story I forewarn you is not for those of delicate sensitivities, good readers…but if you enjoy a good gross-out and are not yourselves eating, read on!
Nature can be cruel but it is efficient, and wastes nothing…and so it was that when a woman in France fell to her death off a cliff in mid-April, her body was devoured by vultures in just 45 minutes, before rescue workers were even able to reach the remains. The 52-year-old woman was hiking with two friends in the French Pyrenees when she plunged more than 980 feet to her death. By the time rescuers reached the body, there were only clothes, shoes, and bones left on the ground…
Griffon vultures were the species involved, and they are protected by law. The gruesome incident may further the cause of area farmers who want permission to shoot the vultures, claiming that the ban has led to a swelling in their population with livestock being threatened. Vultures have been deprived of animal carcasses due to a European law requiring farmers to burn the bodies of dead animals. In effect, this has turned the griffon vultures from scavengers to predators in regions of southern France and Spain, with livestock animals literally being eaten alive…
Explore posts in the same categories: animal behavior, animal occurrences, animals, avian, scavengers and predatorsTags: scavengers, Vultures
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FOXSYLVANIA 
May 7, 2013 at 5:21 am
If they lack food why doesn’t the population of vultures go down? Or is this a very new law and nature hasn’t “adjusted”?
I don’t see the problem with nature cleaning up – isn’t that really what we want – no bloated decomposing dead animals (or people) stinking up the planet. I am being harsh but keeping the world tidy doesn’t seem like a bad vocation.
Elephant
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May 7, 2013 at 11:08 am
I think that the vultures as a population are “stressed,” but presently are successfully adapting by making their food source living livestock rather than carcasses. Nature, as they say, will prevail!
You’re quite right that vultures and other scavengers serve a valuable function in nature. Public opinion tends to run against them because they and what they do are not generally considered cute and endearing. This is why “Beaky Buzzard” isn’t seen much anymore as a cartoon character.–Vultures could use a good public relations campaign!
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May 7, 2013 at 7:15 pm
That might be a little hard to do, when current news media that follow the “If-it-bleeds-it-leads” school of journalism are currently referred to as “vultures,” themselves!
On a crypto-zoological note, however; this anecdote only serves to prove to the anti-Sasquatch crowd precisely _why_ pro-Bigfoot researchers have yet to find the body of one. The latter become the Darwinian version of fast food.
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May 8, 2013 at 1:04 am
I thought my Big Mac tasted a bit “gamey” the other day!
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May 7, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Thank you for your answer. I will do my part! We would have a very disgusting smelly world if we didn’t have creatures who clean up!
Elephant
PS I don’t want to watch a vulture eat flesh, but then I don’t like watching people do it either.
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May 7, 2013 at 11:26 pm
“I am not a carnivore. I’m a vegetarian once removed.”
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