International Vulture Awareness Day

People don't like vultures. I get it. Even in the Lion King, vultures were portrayed as creepy and cackling.

A contemporary art print with a ring to it. From NathanJoyce.

But vultures, key players in numerous ecosystems, have been hit hard by a number of factors, and numbers everywhere have experienced steep declines. One of Save Our Species vulture conservation projects has listed population drops between 97-99% since 1990 for some species.

Much like owls (who have only seen a popularity revival due to the Harry Potter movies), vultures are seen as evil in many cultures, signs of bad omens. This translates into modern day life, where people everywhere turn their noses up at an animal that has the capacity to kill bacteria like E. coli by eating it.

Vultures are nature's cleaner-uppers. Without them, many infectious diseases would be far more widespread.

In Asia (yes, there are vultures here!), most vultures are killed while doing their jobs. Cattle today are often injected with a substance called Diclofenac, which proves fatal to these majestic birds when they appear to dispense of cattle carrion.

The beautiful bearded vulture, or lammergeier, from the Ethiopian highlands; a personal favorite. Image courtesy Martina Carrete.

International Vulture Awareness Day is now in its second year. If you want to get involved, they even have wikispaces page open to the public, but the main thing is to get the word out there: vultures are awesome!