Why Eating Rotten Flesh Doesn’t Make Vultures Sick
- 9 years ago
Researchers have recently discovered what lies at the root of a vulture’s ability to eat rotting flesh without incident.
Roadkill and other abandoned carcasses are an easy meal for creatures out in the wild, but once decay sets in the nosh could prove to be their last. Vultures, however, have proven to be remarkably exempt from such ill effects.
Researchers have recently discovered what lies at the root of the carrion bird’s ability to eat rotting flesh without incident.
The study included autopsying 50 black and turkey vultures, which had been trapped in Tennessee and euthanized.
Testing of the birds' faces and guts showed high levels of two poisonous substances that are emitted from decaying flesh.
One was fusobacteria, which has been linked to blood infections.
The other was the botulism-producing substance Clostridium.
And yet that wasn't what killed them.
Of the find, researcher Michael Roggenbuck of the University of Copenhagen said the birds, “…appear to have developed a tolerance toward some of the deadly bacteria — species that would kill other animals actively seem to flourish in the vulture lower intestine."
One explanation for the tolerance is that a vulture’s stomach acids are incredibly strong.
Further, it’s posited that the birds have developed the ability to use the toxins to their benefit, possibly as a means of combatting other fatal microbes.
Roadkill and other abandoned carcasses are an easy meal for creatures out in the wild, but once decay sets in the nosh could prove to be their last. Vultures, however, have proven to be remarkably exempt from such ill effects.
Researchers have recently discovered what lies at the root of the carrion bird’s ability to eat rotting flesh without incident.
The study included autopsying 50 black and turkey vultures, which had been trapped in Tennessee and euthanized.
Testing of the birds' faces and guts showed high levels of two poisonous substances that are emitted from decaying flesh.
One was fusobacteria, which has been linked to blood infections.
The other was the botulism-producing substance Clostridium.
And yet that wasn't what killed them.
Of the find, researcher Michael Roggenbuck of the University of Copenhagen said the birds, “…appear to have developed a tolerance toward some of the deadly bacteria — species that would kill other animals actively seem to flourish in the vulture lower intestine."
One explanation for the tolerance is that a vulture’s stomach acids are incredibly strong.
Further, it’s posited that the birds have developed the ability to use the toxins to their benefit, possibly as a means of combatting other fatal microbes.