Noble Vulchur [ Top 50 TRUSTED ]

The very word “vulture” has become an insult. To call a person a vulture is to accuse them of preying on the weak and profiting from disaster. We imagine a bald, hunched creature lurking at the edge of death, waiting to pick bones clean.

Tragically, the noble vulture is in freefall. Six of Africa’s 11 vulture species are now critically endangered. They are poisoned by poachers (who fear the circling birds will alert rangers to their kills), electrocuted by power lines, and killed by the very toxins we leave in carcasses. Noble Vulchur

In the 1990s and 2000s, a veterinary drug called Diclofenac was used to treat inflammation in cattle. It is a miracle drug for cows, but fatal poison for vultures. When a vulture eats a cow that died within days of treatment, the vulture suffers acute kidney failure and dies within 36 hours. In India, where the related Gyps vulture species crashed by 99%, the Noble Vulchur was also decimated. The very word “vulture” has become an insult