Turkey vulture

The turkey vulture

The iconic vulture is a bird which feeds primarily on carrion - the flesh of dead animals.  That may seem a little nebulous, as most predators will kill something first then eat that which has just expired.  Turkey vultures then are opportunistic carnivores that actually don't kill to eat.  Rather, they enjoy the bounty of something that has died on its own or been killed by something else.   The distinction is important because of the reputation they have been branded with over the centuries.  Quite frankly, it is unfair.

The roll vultures play in nature is actually very important.  They go about their business and clean up the mess left behind.  They are nature's way of not letting good food go to waste.  What they don't get will be taken by others, such as all dogs and their relatives on land (coyotes, jackals, and so on), by fish and their relatives in water, many invertebrates, and ultimately by bacteria, protists, and fungi in all environments.  We call this group the scavengers and decomposers.  If it was not for these important niches of organisms the world would be filled with the remains of dead things. 

Consider the image of a skeleton of some long gone creature and a vulture sitting on a branch nearby.  Another popular meme is the cowboy dying of thirst, crawling on the desert, and vultures soaring overhead.  It does impart a certain dose of the heebeegeebees in one's mind, I suppose primarily because they would not be kind enough to wait until death had fully set in.  Being opportunistic, they would much rather be at the party first.  No sense showing up after all the good parts are gone.

We associate vultures with death, and all associated icons receive similar disdain.  Whether it be Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Future, the Spectre of Death, or even the ever eerie headstone with your name on it, they all speak of a foreboding finality.  I think that our view of death is not a global phenomenon, but very much a western understanding; death is something to be terrified of.  I recall a scene in "The Lord of the Rings" where Gandalf and Pippin are awaiting their demise.  The wizard helps Pip's fear regarding what they imagine is inevitable.  Scary and uncertain, but also bringing about a welcome peace filled with wonder, the concept of death is given a very different view.

If people saw death in this way, the vulture may be viewed in a totally different light.  They may be looked at the same way we see doves.  Not harbingers of death, but bringers of new life and peace.  I guess it is all in the way you look at things.