October 08, 2021

#23 – Bring Out Your Dead (Part 1)

1 hour 18 minutes

Content Warning: talk of corpses and the eating of them. Vultures are nasty birds which cleanse the landscape of death and disease. In this part of our first ever two part episode we learn about the New World vultures from North and South America and how they fit into their landscapes and interact with each other. Next time: Old World vultures!

Thanks for listening to our weekly exploration of why grasslands are the best biome. We'll see you next week for part two!

Primary Sources: Be sure to check out photos and more at our site!

Zepeda Mendoza, M. L., Roggenbuck, M., Manzano Vargas, K., Hansen, L. H., Brunak, S., Gilbert, M. T. P., & Sicheritz-Pontén, T. (2018). Protective role of the vulture facial skin and gut microbiomes aid adaptation to scavenging. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica, 60(1). doi:10.1186/s13028-018-0415-3

Winkler, D. W., S. M. Billerman, and I.J. Lovette (2020). New World Vultures (Cathartidae), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.

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