Vultures are known for their unsavory food habits, scavenging and eating rotting dead things. That is why no one was too sad when a painkiller for cows which proliferated in India in the 90's was poisonous to the birds who ate the remains, however their resulting disappearance had unintended consequences.
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00:00Vultures are known for their unsavory food habits, scavenging and eating rotting, dead
00:09things.
00:10That's why no one was too sad when a painkiller for cows, which proliferated in India in the
00:1390s, was poisonous to the birds who ate the remains, causing a severe downflux in their
00:18populations.
00:19However, according to a new study, the disappearance of those creatures had massive, sweeping consequences.
00:25Researchers found that without the vultures to eat the dead remains of cows, as the country
00:29does not have adequate incinerators to get rid of the dead animals by other means, diseases
00:33spread rapidly from the carcasses of the deceased animals.
00:37This spread first started amongst other scavenger creatures like dogs, but eventually spread
00:41to humans as well, drastically increasing mortality rate.
00:45According to the data, just 10 years after the introduction of the cattle painkiller,
00:48the mortality rate in areas that used it rose some 4.7 percent.
00:53That equates to around 100,000 extra premature deaths every year.
00:57This also had a financial cost, as every citizen provides economic value to the community,
01:02with the study concluding that the disappearance of the vultures resulted in a 69.8 billion
01:07dollar hit to the economy.
01:09The researchers note that areas that did not rely on the vultures for carry and disposal
01:13did not see the same increase in mortality rate.