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NEWS ABOUT: vulture

German Cops to Use Vultures to Find Corpses

Trio of vulture detectives given the names Sherlock, Miss Marple, Columbo

(Newser) - The world's first three police vultures are undergoing training in Germany. Police hope the bird detectives—named Sherlock, Miss Marple, and Columbo—will prove more effective than sniffer dogs at finding dead bodies because of their exceptional eyesight and sense of smell, along with their ability to search large... More »

Saudi Arabia Arrests Vulture ... as Israeli Spy

Because it was tagged by Israeli scientists

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia has captured a dangerous Mossad spy—and it has feathers. The cunning agent in question is a griffon vulture that alighted in Saudi territory with a transmitter strapped around its leg reading, “Tel Aviv University.” Its cover story: researchers at the school tagged it to study... More »

Fugitive Vulture Poses Threat to Planes

Escaped bird of prey in Scotland poses 'genuine' danger

(Newser) - Scottish pilots have been warned to be on the lookout for a massive vulture that escaped from a local aviary, the BBC reports. The Griffon Vulture, known as Gandalf, has a 10-foot wingspan and can reach altitudes of 37,000 feet. Handlers for the World of Wings center say Gandalf... More »

World Cup 'Vulture Smoking' Theatens Rare Birds

Gamblers smoke birds' brains; bird lovers sqawk

(Newser) - As the World Cup gets underway in South Africa, scientists are betting that one of the biggest losers in the soccer championship will be the endangered vulture. In South African traditional medicine called muti, vulture brains are dried, ground up, and smoked as cigarettes to give users what they believe... More »

Jack Nicholson Wouldn't Mind Being Eaten by Vultures

Actor, 72, mulls Native American 'sky burial'

(Newser) - At 72, Jack Nicholson has been thinking about death, or, more particularly, burial arrangements. One option he finds appealing, he tells German TV, is a Native American practice that would leave his body to the vultures. “I liked the nature of the Indians who haul their bodies up into... More »

EU Rules Starve Spanish Vultures

(Newser) - Madrid’s regional government hopes to relax EU laws that call for rotting livestock to be removed from fields—a precaution against mad cow disease—because the removal denies carrion-munching vultures a meal, the AP reports. “When a sheep or cow dies in the countryside,” said one ornithologist,... More »

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