discussion / Biologging  / 22 February 2016

GPS carrying vultures are being used to detect illegal dumps in Peru

Fascinating story here about using GPS equipped vultures to find illegal dumping grounds in Peru. It's great to see how this project is changing previous perceptions of these birds. 




The police have tried to use New World Vultures to find dead bodies in Europe. The success was some what limited but not the fault of the birds.

This does open up a whole area of questions about the use of birds and some of the Unforeseen consequences. The latest amazingly stupid idea of using Eagles to bring down drones that was/is being considered by the British police after the Dutch police showed a video of a Juvenile Bald Eagle doing the same. The vultures that are now being deliberately killed in Africa because naturally they are giving away the location of a poached elephant or Rhino. The poor Griffon Vultures that keep being arrested as spies in the middle east as they have rings that have come from Israel on there legs.

There are quite often side effects to these uses of birds that are unforeseen at the out set but usually end up cost the animal involved.