7/31/2023 0 Comments Are bears scavengersSome studies estimated a decline in more than 90 percent of the Indian vulture population as a result of the use of this bovine veterinary drug. Because many birds can flock to and consume one cow carcass, each dead cow that had been recently treated with diclofenac could poison many vultures. More recently, in the 1990s, widespread use of the cattle medication, diclofenac, dramatically reduced the vulture population in India. Conservation efforts are under way and have been effective, but the California condor is still considered one of the rarest birds on Earth. The vultures fed on remnants of animals field-dressed by hunters (removing a killed animal's internal organs), and the carrion frequently contained bullet fragments, which were made from toxic lead that killed the avian consumers. In the United States, the California condor population, a group of vultures whose wingspans can measure up to three meters (just inches short of 10 feet), was reduced to only 22 individuals in the 1980s because of accidental poisoning. Many vulture deaths stemming from toxins are preventable, and sometimes these deaths result from purposeful poisoning. What is poisoning vultures? Vultures are present on five continents, and their well-being is threatened by toxins on at least three. Sadly, some toxins are still deadly to these scavengers, and such substances are responsible for the majority of vulture deaths over the last 40 years-a trend that has landed most vulture species on the endangered list. Vultures, which exclusively eat dead animal carcasses, are particularly effective at removing pathogens and toxins in the environment because they rapidly consume carrion before it decays, and their stomachs contain an incredibly potent acid that destroys many of the harmful substances found in dead animals. Scavengers eliminate these harmful substances from the environment, mitigating the spread of disease that may otherwise impact local food webs and potentially harm human health and the economy. For example, if left to thrive in a carcass, bacteria and other pathogens may spread within the local environment and infect other animals, including livestock and humans. By consuming dead animals, called carrion, scavengers remove dead carcasses from the environment-a valuable service that goes well beyond environmental aesthetics. However, the research community has become increasingly aware of the critical role scavenging plays in the stability of ecosystems and food webs. The EU commissioners have yet to respond to the activists' letter.When thinking about the beauty and balance of nature, scavengers may not be the first thing that comes to mind. And even dead cows can be left in the traditional Spanish carcass dumps, just as in the past, without any problems, as long as the herd has not had any cases of BSE and the dead animals are younger than two years old. There has yet to be any reported case of BSE among horses, asses or mules, the activists say, meaning their carcasses can be left in pastures without risk. The activists said that the changes "would in no way jeopardize the population's safety from the epidemic." For this reason, the environmentalists from Euronatur and their Spanish colleagues from Fapas sent the results of their study to the EU officials responsible for such matters - Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou and Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas - in early December and demanded "urgent" amendments to Regulation 1774/2002. It appears that no one in Brussels has given the plight of the bears much thought. They can't get into the fenced-off bird feeding stations, and a 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) trip is out of the question. In this way, though, the vultures are at least expanding the habitat of the species and thereby reducing the demand for carcasses in their original territory.įor the bears, though, emigration is no solution. Flocks of the large scavengers, whose wingspan can reach 3 meters (9.8 feet), have been sighted in Germany, Belgium and France.īut even this long trip doesn't bring them to a land of plenty - there aren't enough feeding stations in these locations, either. Hunger has also driven many of the vultures out of Spain and into areas where they are not native. SPIEGEL Media Menü SPIEGEL Media aufklappenįarmers who were previously happy to leave dead animals to the scavengers are less keen to see the birds come after living animals and have called on Spanish officials to increase pressure on EU officials to amend the regulation.Alle Magazine Menü Alle Magazine aufklappen.SPIEGEL-Heft Menü SPIEGEL-Heft aufklappen.Gutscheine Anzeige Menü Gutscheine aufklappen.Marktplatz Anzeige Menü Marktplatz aufklappen.Wissenschaft Menü Wissenschaft aufklappen.Formel 1 – Liveticker, Kalender, WM-Stand.
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