Ecosystem services

Comments

• supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Vultures have been shown to reduce the spread of dangerous infectious diseases at scale.

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• rockerface@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  The cleanup crew doesn’t fuck around

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• arandomthought@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  I like that account name. It’s not “nature friends” or “interesting nature facts” it tells you to please “GIVE A SHIT about Nature” or fuck off.

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  • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    And yet they have the mark of shame

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    • Carrot@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Could be before it cost money?

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• yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  that would kill almost anything else

  Guess what: It’s fact check time!!

  Anthrax: ❌

  Most birds are naturally resistant to anthrax because of their higher body temperature.

  Botulism (actually botox, botulism is the illness caused by botox. You can’t quite eat an illness): ✅

  “Botulism is one of the most toxic substances in the world, and [turkey vultures’] guts are filled with this bacteria, which apparently has no effect on them,” says Graves.

  (Yes, the article made the same mistake)

  Rabies: ❌

  All warm-blooded species, including humans, may become infected with the rabies virus. Birds were first artificially infected with rabies in 1884; however, infected birds are largely, if not wholly, asymptomatic, and recover.

  Cholera (actually avian cholera, which is distinct from “normal” cholera): ❓

  Besides chickens, the disease also concerns turkeys, ducks, geese, raptors, and canaries.

  So 2/4 diseases are already irrelevant for birds but they sound scary because they infect humans. But:

  Avian cholera barely even counts because it’s caused by “Pasteurella multocida” while (human) cholera is caused by “Vibrio cholerae”. The two bacteria are genetically as closely related as humans and mammoths. And avian cholera does not kill anything but birds.

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  This isn’t to degrade the vulture’s ability to withstand pathogens and toxins, that is still very impressive. It’s just that obviously birds are immune to most human diseases, as pathogens don’t tend to easily jump between distant species.

  And even if they DO jump between species, they usually do not bring their “deadliness” with them (unless they produce poison like botox) as different species react completely differently. Maybe rabies is the one exception, as adjusting the behavior of your host by rummaging around in the brain has some universally negative side effects.

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  • kingofthesheep@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Just wanted to note that botox is actually just a shortening of botulinum toxin. The actual organism that causes it is Clostridium botulinum.

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  • Smoogs@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    ok so they still carry it so it can infect and spread

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• Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Now if only we could bioengineer our own stomachs to be that powerful

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  • Barley_Man@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    There are sure to be tradeoffs which would explain why not every animal have evolved similar stomachs. It’s probably expensive energy wise to maintain that acidity. It probably also makes it hard to maintain a healthy gut flora. Also imagine the burn if you vomit up stomach acid with pH 1.0

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    • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Also imagine the burn if you vomit up stomach acid with pH 1.0

      Instant free ranged weapon!

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    • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yes, but they can projectile vomit as a defense mechanism. Imagine the possibilities.

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      probably has a very thick mucus layer, plus a robust stomach to withstand the low ph.

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    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It could also be a local maximum that’s rare to hit. There doesn’t have to be downsides.

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    • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yep, that’s also why cooking food helped us quite a bit with evolving the brain, less energy used to in the stomach = more energy for the brain and muscles

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    • FreshLight@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Reminds me of the character “Zeitgeist”.

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  • VitoRobles@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    In the game Mass Effect, the Krogan race has all these “backup” organs. They pretty much evolved to become incredibly resilient.

    But they also become alpha douches.

    Either way, I love those little guys.

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    • 13igTyme@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Krogans were heavily inspired by Klingons.

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• stardustpathsofglory@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Reminds me of the Sky burial done in Tibet. I guess this way you have also less diseases.

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  • SlurryBravo@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Sadly, due to a certain drug in dead livestock is causing death in vultures the practice has started to have issues. This was a great podcast about the practice and issue: 99percentinvisible.org/…/579-towers-of-silence/

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    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Diclofenac. It is now banned for veterinary use in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. But vulture populations will take decades to recover. Sadly, diclofenac is still used in Spain and some other European countries, and can impact local vulture species.

      Sky burial is fine as humans do not eat that much diclofenac anyway, but just to be safe they are banned in China (but not in India or Nepal) for the bodies of people who died of infectious diseases.

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• cristigyk@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  so you’re saying vultures are basically flying garbage bins?

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  • ZJBlank@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Compost bins, but yes

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• hactar42@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Sadly the drugs we inject into cows, mainly NSAIDs, cause them to go into liver failure. This lead to large declines in populations, which in turn caused even worse problems because they weren’t eating the diseased carcuses, so other animals would eat them and spread the diseases. Fun times when we think we can control nature.

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  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    its diflenic, the nsaid, like most nsaids they mess with the stomach acid of people(causing acid reflux, and likewise it has a greater affect on the vultures.

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    • Zorcron@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Close, NSAIDs cause stomach problems in humans by preventing the prostaglandin-mediated acid balance and decreasing mucosal secretion that normally protects the stomach from the acid it produces, but that’s not what’s killing the vultures.

      The vultures generally die of kidney failure, which can be a problem in humans, but generally not at commonly used doses as long as no other interacting drugs are used or other kidney problems exist in the person. The exact mechanism for the kidney failure in vultures is not known, however, and thought to be different to how NSAIDs cause kidney problems in humans.

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• Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  the pic on the lef tis a beared vulture, lammageir, its stomach acid is has unusually lower ph(high acidity) compared to other vultures, because its bones. the acid also destroys bacteria, parasites and viruses , mostly.

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• SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  My dog eats a lot of nasty stuff too. If it’s not any good, it comes back up.

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  • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Fun fact: rats can’t vomit.

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    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      makes sense why rat poison works so well.

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    • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      A sea cucumber eats and shits through the same opening.

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  • hactar42@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    That’s one of the reasons humans and dogs created such a good symbiotic relationship. They would eat things, like waste and refuse, that if left around would make humans sick. They got an easy meal and we got protection from food borne illness and rodents.

    I remember reading an article once about how difficult it is to make dog food. Because they have to make it appealing to dogs while at the same time not making it so gross that humans would be turned off at the site and smell of it.

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• greatwhitebuffalo41@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  There’s a neat Turkey vulture that likes to hang out on the roof of my garage. The neighbors have a wide open field behind my house. I’m pretty sure he lives nearby.

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  • rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    You should get checked out by your doctor, maybe he knows something you dont.

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• mdalin@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  How insanely toxic is their poop though? 🫪

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  • Skullgrid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Well, if it chemically destroys the pathogens, not very.

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  • multifariace@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    They squirt shit on their feet like hand sanitizer.

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    • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      That’s like something from the Flintstones. Vultures above the wash basins.

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  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    thier poop still carry pathogens from the carrion they eat.

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• Kyrgizion@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Can’t we identify the genes responsible for their stomach formation and CRISPR them unto humans, theoretically giving them the same abilities?

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  • Promethiel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Can’t we identify the genes responsible for their stomach formation

    Absolutely.

    and CRISPR them unto humans, theoretically giving them the same abilities?

    Absolutely not.

    CRISPR and related techniques are not magic. The interplay between gene presence and trait expression is absurdly more complicated than that. You cannot simply “edit in” entire biological adaptations, that’s not how it works.

    The most likely scenario in such an attempt would simply be nothing. Other possibilities include: Autoimmune lifelong digestive system issues, and death, amongst many others.

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    • Jax@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      To add on to this, vultures stomach acid pH ranges between 0 and 1.

      So unless you’re also modifying the stomach and gut tissue to be able to withstand hydrochloric acid I’m pretty sure that (if successful, which is a big if) that person just dies.

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    • Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Biggest hurdle to just experiment by randomly crispr-editing in humans are ethical, as a society the majority does not want a repeat of experiments similar to Mengeles twins.

      Even though I would love to edit myself to be able to digest lignin and cellulose

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    • pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic

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  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    unlikely, as human suffer from gerd, and acid reflux, might be more harmful than good. the bearded vulture likely has other things in play to prevent the acid from digesting itself.

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  • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Yes, that’s RFK Jr. The stomach acid burns his throat though

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• Nangijala@feddit.dk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Vultures are metal af.

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• xep@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Our stomach acidity is pretty low too.

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• Omnipitaph@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  I’ve always wondered about this. The bacteria itself isn’t usually the problem, its the compounds they shit out right? So like, are their livers just beastly? How are they metabolizing all those crazy nerve agents?

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