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Some studies estimated a decline in more than 90 percent of the Indian vulture population as a result of the use of this bovine veterinary drug. Because many birds can flock to and consume one cow carcass, each dead cow that had been recently treated with diclofenac could poison many vultures. More recently, in the 1990s, widespread use of the cattle medication, diclofenac, dramatically reduced the vulture population in India. Conservation efforts are under way and have been effective, but the California condor is still considered one of the rarest birds on Earth. The vultures fed on remnants of animals field-dressed by hunters (removing a killed animal's internal organs), and the carrion frequently contained bullet fragments, which were made from toxic lead that killed the avian consumers. In the United States, the California condor population, a group of vultures whose wingspans can measure up to three meters (just inches short of 10 feet), was reduced to only 22 individuals in the 1980s because of accidental poisoning. Many vulture deaths stemming from toxins are preventable, and sometimes these deaths result from purposeful poisoning.
![animals that are scavengers animals that are scavengers](http://www.nhptv.org/wild/images/virginiaopossumusfw.jpg)
What is poisoning vultures? Vultures are present on five continents, and their well-being is threatened by toxins on at least three. Sadly, some toxins are still deadly to these scavengers, and such substances are responsible for the majority of vulture deaths over the last 40 years-a trend that has landed most vulture species on the endangered list.
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Vultures, which exclusively eat dead animal carcasses, are particularly effective at removing pathogens and toxins in the environment because they rapidly consume carrion before it decays, and their stomachs contain an incredibly potent acid that destroys many of the harmful substances found in dead animals. Scavengers eliminate these harmful substances from the environment, mitigating the spread of disease that may otherwise impact local food webs and potentially harm human health and the economy. For example, if left to thrive in a carcass, bacteria and other pathogens may spread within the local environment and infect other animals, including livestock and humans. By consuming dead animals, called carrion, scavengers remove dead carcasses from the environment-a valuable service that goes well beyond environmental aesthetics. However, the research community has become increasingly aware of the critical role scavenging plays in the stability of ecosystems and food webs. When thinking about the beauty and balance of nature, scavengers may not be the first thing that comes to mind.