One time I saw a photo, taken by a photojournalist, of a starving African child, a vulture just a few feet behind, seemingly waiting for this mostly dead kid to finally keel over and turn into a human Happy Meal. Apparently this picture, and the fact that the journalist didnt do something, anything, to save the child affected him so deeply that he took his own life shortly thereafter. Heres the thing though. Contrary to old Westerns where a venue of vultures circles the dying cowpoke, trying to eat him before he has the chance to die, vultures actually have terrible eyesight. I mean its good enough for them, but they actually hunt by smell. Vultures are not predators, theyre scavengers. I know there are a few exceptions, but this particular bird was not among them. A vulture eats carrion; food that is so dead it makes a chronic meth users vagina smell like sandalwood. Thats why they have that sharp hook on the ends of their beaks. Following her nose (it always knows), the vulture will find the dead, bloated, stinking corpse and use that beak to tear a little hole in the putrid flesh. Then it sticks its beak inside and slurps up all that decomposed, wholesome goodness. I worked with a guy once who had a pet vulture. She had both wings, but one was nonfunctional after a violent encounter with a tree (told you their eyesight sucks) and would never have survived on her own even with medical care for the wing. He fed her rotten chicken, making a fist and letting her poke a hole in the side of his hand where his thumb was, and letting her nibble it all out. She was a gorgeous bird and I loved being invited over for BBQs just to see her, but my Christ that house stunk for hours after a feeding. Probably not. Im just remembering it that way. So realistically, that vulture didnt give a shit about that starving African kid and likely never got the opportunity to sample the goods unless the kid wandered out into the desert and wasnt found for days. At least. Ive never been able to satisfactorily answer this question: Did a photojournalist end his own life... ...because of a Hollywood myth?
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 00:34:38 +0000