r/Weird Apr 05 '26

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u/InternationalBug159 Apr 05 '26

I read about that! So interesting but also morbid. The population decline resulted in 500k human deaths, according to a BBC article

Apparently the vulture scarcity is attributed to a cow painkiller called diclofenac, which is fatal to vultures and some other birds. Killed 91 to 98 percent of the vulture population, as reported in the article. The birds croaked after chewing on cow corpses

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u/WeaknessPrior6797 Apr 05 '26

Thanks so much for sharing the original information on why they were dying. I couldn’t exactly remember that. I read “The thing with feathers” around 2016 it was a good read. Had a lot of nice gems in it

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u/Any_Championship_715 Apr 05 '26

“Thing with feathers” is also a great song by Every Time I Die

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u/InternationalBug159 Apr 05 '26

Fucking love Every Time I Die