1. The vulture that occupies the top of the food chain
Vultures are best known for the large vultures that are active in the savannahs of South America. Adult vultures weigh 9-11 kg, have a body length of about 1.5 meters, and can spread their wings up to more than 4 meters, ranking first among birds of prey. The vulture is revered by the Cusco Indians of southern Peru, even sewing its images on homemade cloth and is now Ecuador's national bird.
The vulture is so large that it is destined to flap its wings at a low speed, usually once a second; while the world's smallest bird, the hummingbird, can fan up to 90 times per second, which is obviously not an order of magnitude.
Vultures feed fast, have few rivals, and are at the top of the food chain. Surprisingly, vultures do not like small animals that jump around alive, but rather love rotten meat: especially dead sheep, horses and camels, often attracting nearby vultures to flock to you and you scramble.
The bald vulture's head and neck are bare and have little hair, which is said to be convenient for the head to be inserted into the rotten skeleton to nibble on, so that the fur will not be contaminated with rot and juice. When food is scarce, vultures also attack deer, cattle, sheep, and sometimes tease cougars and tigers to snatch food from their mouths.
So the question is, carrion contains a lot of bacteria, viruses, why are vultures okay? Does it have special secret weapons.
2. Vultures eat carrion but do not get sick
For the above questions, zoologists have long done in-depth research to find answers. Vultures swallow carrion without any disease, thanks to their powerful stomach acid and immune system.
Stomach acid can be simply understood as hydrochloric acid secreted by the stomach, which is an indispensable material component for birds and animals. The main function of stomach acid is to cooperate with other organs and substances to break down the food swallowed into nutrients needed in the body. In the evolutionary process of animals over thousands of years, they have gradually formed their own range of stomach acid: excessive stomach acid, easy to appear "heartburn", "acid water" and other symptoms, and even cause acute gastritis, duodenal ulcers; too little stomach acid, that is, insufficient gastric acid secretion, inability to undertake the task of food digestion, prone to gastrointestinal diseases.
Under normal circumstances, the PH value of human stomach acid is between 1.5-3.5; unlike vultures, its gastric acid PH value is close to 0, the corrosive ability is more than a hundred times that of people, and dissolving copper and zinc debris is simply a piece of cake. The bacteria and viruses bred by the rotten flesh must be "doomed" in the powerful stomach acid, and the bacteria that have lost their activity will naturally not cause the lesions of vultures.
In addition, the vulture's strong immune system has set up a second protective wall for it. Researchers tracked and found that when bacteria and viruses are rampant in the African savannah, all kinds of small animals die evenly to varying degrees, and only vultures can "stand alone". The reason is that vultures have a strong immune system that reacts quickly, killing harmful viruses directly. In the spread of bacteria, vultures play the role of the final terminator.
Acid reflux. Describes a gastric diagram of gastroesophageal reflux in people. This is caused by poor muscle function in the center of the lower esophagus, which allows the acid in the stomach to flow back from the stomach to the esophagus
Scientists further found that the bacteria in the vulture's intestines are not all harmful substances, and some intestinal bacteria form a reciprocal relationship with the vultures.
The most famous is Clostridium bacillus, which multiplies in large quantities in the intestines of vultures, helping vultures to decompose many of the substances they swallow into nutrients; at the same time, the vultures' own immune system has long been familiar with Clostridium bacillus, and the potential harmful possibilities for their hiding can produce antibodies to resist the attacks from them.
It is for the above reasons that vultures can eat carrion without fear of illness, so vultures are known as "scavengers", which has made great contributions to purifying grasslands and accelerating material circulation.
3, China's alpine vultures
The alpine vultures distributed in China's Kunlun Mountains, Himalayas and qinghai-Tibet Plateau are close relatives of African condors, and many habits and characteristics are very similar, especially good at eating carrion. The difference is that the alpine vultures have developed the ability to leap over the high ground because of their habitat.
Similar to other species of vultures, alpine vultures also have wings that spread out 3-4 meters, flapping a large area and a slow speed, so their flight method is more of a gliding, which greatly reduces physical exertion and allows it to "run" for a long time and a long distance. Adult alpine vultures easily leap over the peak of more than 6,000 meters.
According to the data, many people have observed or found traces, proving that alpine vultures can fly over mount Everest, the roof of the world at an altitude of more than 8800 meters. According to this calculation, the flight altitude of alpine vultures should be more than 9,000 meters, and here we have to admire the ability of alpine vultures to tolerate low oxygen and low temperatures.
Alpine vultures devour dead animals and generally do not attack living animals. Importantly, its sharp claws have actually degenerated and their attack effect has been greatly reduced, and it is now mainly used to tear the animal's hair and eat carrion with its mouth.
Alpine vultures are good at swallowing large mouths and rely on the powerful stomach acid mentioned above to digest food, so they are extremely fast, and they can swallow 1 kilogram of carrion in about 1 minute. An animal the size of a dead adult zebra, if you encounter a herd of alpine vultures, it only takes half an hour for a skeleton to come into view.
The highlands are not as animal-dense as the forested areas of the Central Plains, so finding a piece of carrion requires alpine vultures to make multiple trips. "Forced" alpine vultures to fly higher and farther, increasing the chances of obtaining food by expanding the area they searched. In fact, in a barren environment, alpine vultures have also developed the habit of group cooperation. Once a certain alpine vulture finds food, it will make a special sound, and the alpine vultures around tens of kilometers "hear the news" at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and then eat a full meal.
It should be pointed out that there are currently about 20,000 alpine vultures in China, and the biggest problem at this time is food shortage, often hungry and full. It was suggested that its protection should be raised to new heights and that it would not be taken seriously until it was about to become extinct.
Original: Old High