Photo courtesy of South Dakota Turkey Vultures (Facebook).

Another name for Turkey vulture is Cathartes Aura- emanating catharsis; purifying breeze. Catharsis: to purify, to purge. Perhaps vultures are the emblem of purity, which of course, would mean we’ve had it all wrong.

Here in Central Texas, Turkey Vultures are ubiquitous and easy to spot. You’re most likely to spot these large, dark birds with bald, red heads perched on top of power lines or riding the thermals with wings outstretched. They are categorized with other predatory birds like Hawks and Eagles because they, too, eat carrion.

Turkey vultures can smell rotting flesh from miles away. Their stomachs are armed with a substance so acidic, it wouldn’t be a stretch to compare it to battery acid. And this is their superpower- enabling them to ingest diseases like anthrax, rabies, tuberculosis, tetanus, gangrene, botulism- to name a few. As a result of their powerful gut microbiome, their excretions are anti-bacterial. Every time they defecate, they cover their legs with sanitizer. This enables them to stand directly inside of the decaying body of a diseased cow, without risking getting a lethal infection in their feet or legs.

Vultures are the immune system of our one, precious planet.

Purity is not defined by all the things we so dutifully avoid or run from; purity is entering into the coyote body; it is taking, and eating. Transforming what disgusts and threatens to destroy, into that which cleanses and protects.

Apparently, in the visible plane at least, only vultures are ordained for this sacred task. When vultures disappear, other scavenger populations explode. Unarmed with the same cleansing digestive superpowers, these scavengers spread diseases amongst their own communities, and eventually humans. Can you see the paradox? The bald-headed bird- whose scaly red face skin is indistinguishable from the dried blood on his beak- eviscerating coyote intestines on the side of the road; this is purity embodied. He does not look away, repulsed- every cell in his body is finely tuned to the register of the dying and discarded. Through his willingness and instinctual drive to consume what we despise and discard, he has become our purifying breeze.

Photo courtesy of James Hammen.

The irony is that vultures are the single most threatened group of birds on our planet. Here in Central Texas, this can be hard to believe. Some days, it feels like vultures are the only bird in the sky. But this is the reality.

The cause? Poisoning. Vultures have co-evolved over thousands of years with the naturally occurring diseases they miraculously digest, but they are not immune to the poisons we manufacture. This poison comes in many forms. Here in the States, the rapid decline and near extinction of the California Condor was due to “toxic lead bullet fragments in the gut piles left behind by hunters after animals had been field-dressed.”

This ecological nightmare has been met with conservation efforts, resulting in a slow but steady rebound in populations. But, due to their slow reproductive timelines, it is much, much harder to recover a vulture population that is already declining, than it is to prevent these declines in the first place.

Our cultural opinion of vultures as repulsive and despised doesn’t diminish the fact that they are one of the single most important species on our planet- more essential to the health of all than humans, to be sure. Since vultures are the immune system of our planet, then let us value their necessary work, which both purifies and protects.

By Abby West.

Sources include: Smithsonian Magazine, Loudoun Wildlife, The University of Utah, and Radiolab.