Vultures eat woman's body in 50 minutes after fall off cliff

[cali]

A woman was eaten by vultures after falling off a cliff in the French Pyrénées, International Business Times reported.

The French woman, whose name has not been released, was hiking Friday in the area with two friends. According to the Times, she attempted a shortcut through the mountain range, located on the border with Spain, but fell off a cliff and died.

The Times reported she died before being eaten by the vultures.

United Press International said she fell about 980 feet. According to UPI, it took the vultures about 50 minutes to eat the 52-year-old's body. They left behind nothing but her bones, clothes and shoes.

<snip>

http://news.msn.com/world/vultures-eat-womans-body-in-50-minutes-after-fall-off-cliff?ocid=OBTAP

[Junkdrawer]

1. Why do I see this as foretaste of our fate?

We won't destroy the Life on Earth. Life on Earth will eventually find a use for us.

[Ikonoklast]

2. Every organic entity on this planet is food for another organic entity.

Humans are not immune from that immutable fact.

[Marr]

23. Huh?

Of course it is. We're living things. Just about everything ends up being eaten by something.

[Yavin4]

32. Louis CK

[AverageJoe90]

75. Yeah, true. That was totally weird, though.

"Foretaste of our fate"? Somebody must've pissed in his Wheaties this morning.....

[AverageJoe90]

74. You're just really weird like that, I suppose. I dunno really.

Hey, no offense, but that was a totally off-topic and strange thing to say on a thread like this.....

[Junkdrawer]

76. It was on my mind today....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022820964

[Tikki]

3. And here I thought BONES exaggerated..

a bit with all her forensic claims....not!!!


Tikki

[pinto]

4. It's what vultures do. The headline's focus aside, I guess this is more about

local farmers wanting to hunt them to protect their livestock. Not sure if vultures attack live animals? Thought they generally ate livestock carcasses.

Pericou added that the incident has reignited calls from local farmers to allow hunting of the birds.

The Times reported that Pyrénéan farmers have been demanding the right to shoot the birds, known as Griffon Vultures, because they've been attacking sheep and cows.

[sofa king]

72. Vultures killed stuff in the 1970s.

Last edited Fri May 10, 2013, 12:43 AM - Edit history (1)

(Edit: Apparently one of their first victims was good taste.)

[riverwalker]

5. called a "Sky Burial" in Tibet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial

[DreamGypsy]

6. Griffon vultures are beautiful birds...

...though perhaps not exactly suited to everyone's taste. Vultures and other carrion eaters perform a valuable function cleaning up dead things...and, as we know, all things that live must die. Rotting carcases are a health hazard; bones, clothes and shoes not so much.

Another excerpt from the article:

The Times reported that Pyrénéan farmers have been demanding the right to shoot the birds, known as Griffon Vultures, because they've been attacking sheep and cows.

But the species is protected in France and has lost access to its normal diet of carcasses due to European health and safety regulations.

That's what happens when a natural balence is disturbed.

[randome]

56. That is a magnificent looking animal!

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[lunatica]

58. That's a beautiful photo of a vulture!

Vultures are amazing birds who glide forever on upward heated air currents and who can smell carrion from many miles away. They also seem to have an uncanny way of knowing if an animal or human is dying. I've never seen a picture of a dead one.

[Jamastiene]

77. +1

Gorgeous vulture! I love vultures anyhow, because we really do need them and other carrion eaters. We'd be up to our necks in dead bodies without the carrion eaters.

[Eleanors38]

7. How the Clean-up Crew operates in Texas, too...

Took about 1.5 hours to wrap up a field-dressed deer I shot. I've gotten to where I stay with a downed animal & radio in for a pick up. Damned vultures even buzz me. Thick as hives in this drought, I guess.

[KittyWampus]

8. What a great way to go- I am not kidding. Instant death and sky burial, giving life to the planet

so quickly after death.

It's quite profound.

Condolences to her family.

[Scootaloo]

27. 980 feet isn't "instant" until you hit the bottom

Until that moment, I'm sure it's beyond terrifying.

Let me die without ever noticing... then send in the vultures and hyenas and whatever else wants a bite

[Warren DeMontague]

38. It's exactly how I'd like to go.

Except I'd be 105 years old, at home, in bed, surrounded by loved ones, and geeezed to the yammer on pain meds as I slowly drift off into a peaceful narcotic haze.

But other than that, exactly the same. And the vultures are welcome to whatever's left.

[dembotoz]

50. would the vultures get stoned if they ate your narcotic hazed body????

I see a great video on tosh 2.0 in the making here......

stone vultures flying into walls....

[Warren DeMontague]

57. Not my problem anymore

but more power to 'em.

[dembotoz]

61. addicted vultures--oh the humanity

[muriel_volestrangler]

86. Vultures in South Asia were dying of kidney failure from drugs given to cattle

Long-billed vulture numbers recover in Pakistan after diclofenac ban

Diclofenac was banned for veterinary use across south Asia in 2006 after it was discovered to be responsible for catastrophic declines in vulture populations in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh, by as much as 99% over 10 years.

The anti-inflammatory treatment was used to treat ailing cattle and other livestock, and when these carcasses were left out for vultures to scavenge, the birds died of kidney failure in their thousands.

As a result, once-common Asian vultures are among the most endangered birds in the world, and the long-billed vulture is one of four Asian species listed as critically endangered by the IUCN.

However a new study by the Peregrine Fund found that by 2008, two years after the ban, breeding populations of the long-billed vulture at study sites in Pakistan had increased by up to 52%.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/30/pakistan-vulture-diclofenac-ban

A particular problem in India, where religion meant that many farmers didn't want to put down sick cattle, but gave them drugs instead. The drop in vulture numbers had the knock on effect of an increase of feral dogs scavenging what the vultures had; which increased the risk of rabies, and also increased the attacks on dogs by leopards - and the attacks on humans by leopards. http://antranik.org/the-great-indian-vulture-crisis/

[Jamastiene]

81. That sounds peaceful.

That is my wish too.

[Warren DeMontague]

84. In fact, come to think of it, I may actually include the phrase "geeezed to the yammer" in my

care directive.

[backscatter712]

48. It's not the fall that kills, it's the sudden stop...

Well, yeah, falling to your death would be pretty terrifying, but then again, people jump off of cliffs on purpose, for bungee jumping and BASE jump parachuting.

I imagine the actual death would be instantaneous.

[stuntcat]

63. :)

I agree.

[yurbud]

89. sounds like an opportunity for a non-polluting alternative to cremation or burial

[HughBeaumont]

9. We're talking a guy longer than the height of the Comcast Center.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Center_(office_building)

You couldn't PAY me to hike so close to giant cliffs or mountains. Other than coasters and the occasional plane, I'm strictly a landlubber.

[flamingdem]

10. Personally I think the being dead part is worse

than the having your bones cleaned by vultures part.

Big deal, it's nature.

[tblue]

26. Me too.

It's fascinating in a macabre way, I guess, but hopefully she was a nature lover who wouldn't care. I've been trying to decide what to do with my ashes after I am cremated. I wouldn't mind if they were fed to some nice tree.

[Myrina]

11. So who timed the vultures?

How'd they come up with 50 minutes?
Would be really deplorable if people knew she fell but nobody tried to rescue/retrieve her.

[Renew Deal]

13. I'm not sure how easy it is to rescue/recover someone after a 980 foot fall

The descent through the mountains probably takes a long time and the location where she fell may not be easily accesible.

[Myrina]

14. Ok, so ... did her hiking crew sit there and watch her get eaten?

Seriously, how did anyone know it was "50 minutes" ?

[kestrel91316]

16. That's presumably how long it too somebody to reach her body.

[Art_from_Ark]

66. According to this French-language article,

the woman was 53 years old. She fell from the summit of Piste on April 14th, and when the rescue crew arrived around *2 hours later*, they found that vultures had already eaten away her body.

""Nous sommes arrivés sur les lieux en hélicoptère environ deux heures après l'accident, il ne restait que les ossements", a indiqué un secouriste du PGHM présent sur la scène du drame."

http://midi-pyrenees.france3.fr/2013/05/03/pyrenees-les-vautours-auraient-devore-le-corps-d-une-randonneuse-245283.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+France3-MidiPyrenees-Info+%28France+3+-+Info+Midi-Pyrenees%29

[Cleita]

18. I have a problem with this story.

My experience in watching the vultures where I live is that they prefer a corpse that is starting to rot. They actually don't seem to like fresh kill and will wait a day or two for it to marinate if other scavengers don't get there first. If they ate the corpse in fifty minutes, that's pretty understandable. What if she had died first before being thrown off the cliff for the vultures?

Just sayin'.

[Scootaloo]

33. Big differences between old world and new world vultures

Old world vultures are predatory; essentially eagles without the killer talons. They're powerful, and turn to predation fairly readily when carrion's not available (Europe's not Africa, there aren't megafauna carcasses littering the landscape, after all). They also form flocks and colonies, which means this woman might have had anywhere from ten to thirty birds working on her

New world vultures are only distantly related to other Accipteridae (and maybe not at all!) They are much more reliant on carrion, having more gracile beaks and weak feet with fairly dull talons. They're opportunists, taking eggs and garbage, but only the black vulture has ever been observed taking live prey. The black vulture is also the only one that makes large groups, and even then mostly for breeding.

Plus, not to be disrespectful, but a 980-foot fall in the mountains is going to loosen the body up more than enough for scavenger birds to strip it.

[Cleita]

42. Thanks. I appreciate the lesson as I really didn't know. I just know about birds from

what I observe from my feathered neighbors and that has been only in the New World.

[MADem]

51. Oh dear.

I'm thinking about how Europeans prize fresh food now....they're more likely to 'shop daily,' etc.

Terribly inappropriate, I know...

[Jamastiene]

80. They had a guy at the bottom with a stopwatch?

I don't know. I am interested in knowing the answer to that question too. I would guess, and it would only be a guess, they were trying to get to her body taking a safer path than she did and it took 50 minutes? That's just a guess though.

[snooper2]

12. respect teh wildlife

[srican69]

15. Parsis in India feed their dead to vultures .. guess it pretty eco friendly

I would like a sea burial and be fed to fish

[tblue]

28. I want to be fed to whales.

Wonder how I'd go about doing that.

[Scootaloo]

34. Join the crew of the Pequod n/t

[petronius]

60. Sea creatures are my choice as well - I've told my wife that I want to go straight

into the deep ocean, in a weighted net. (Well actually, I really want to be dressed in a pirate costume and deposited around a corner at my local dive spot, but there might be some objections to that...)

[Jamastiene]

79. I wish we really did have more choices.

So many laws keep us from deciding what we REALLY want done to our bodies after we die. If a serial killer gets us, especially one who likes to hack up bodies, we have no choice, because serial killers don't follow those laws. But, if we die in a situation where the authorities are involved right away, we still don't get to decide. Out of all the choices we have in NC(burial in a Christian graveyard and cremation), I guess I want cremation. If no one else gets there first, though, let the wildlife live off my body.

Vultures would be the ultimate for my body, because I have always said if reincarnation is real, I wouldn't mind being a vulture in another life. They get to soar like they do, don't have to kill their own food, and nobody wants to capture them to make pets out of them. So, they are truly free, it seems.

I just hope my death is not at the hands of a serial killer. There is one operating in my area, even though the police in my county won't let it be mentioned in the paper. The county next door did allow it to be mentioned and most of the bodies they have found have been in my county.

[tblue]

85. Oh goodness. Where is that?

If you don't mind saying.

[Jamastiene]

88. My county is in the southern central part of NC.

Where I live is about 75 miles east of Charlotte and 100 miles south of Raleigh. This serial killer has been operating since at least the mid 90s and nary a word on whether they've made any progress or not. I know the paper in my county will not report on it at all. The county next to us would report on it and I would probably see it online. I haven't seen anything new, so I have no clue whether the county next door has decided to go mum on any information too or what. It's downright creepy knowing our county's newspaper would not report on it when the news first hit.

[HappyMe]

17. Well...

that's what vultures do.

[Cleita]

19. Weird that the vultures would attack living livestock. They usually

don't kill first. Their job is clean up after a kill.

[Posteritatis]

54. There's several types of them, with widely varying behaviours. (nt)

[KamaAina]

20. Cliff?

Sure it wasn't a Wall Street skyscraper?

[flamingdem]

36. hmm. In that case who were the vultures?

new yawkers? occupiers? tourists?

[KamaAina]

40. Wall Street banksters!

[Rex]

21. She fell 980 feet, the part about her being dead before the

vultures ate her was really kinda not needed imo.

[CTyankee]

22. note to self: stay out of the Pyrenees next trip to Spain...a little cafe in Barcelona,

sipping a cafe cortado, will do me just fine...

[HappyMe]

25. I agree.

I'll look at the beauty of the mountains from the safety of a cafe.

Taking off by yourself when hiking in the mountains is a pretty dumbass thing to do.

[CTyankee]

29. Hoping to get back to Spain in 2014. Beautiful country! I found the Pyrenees very

mysterious in late October, very misty, and I thought of the Jews who crossed into
France over them after expulsion in the 15th century, and the Jews who crossed from
France back into Spain after Hitler conquered France in the 20th...

[Hassin Bin Sober]

67. Did you happen to see The Way with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez ?

It's on Netflix instant. Nice little diddy of a movie.


The Way
2010

PG-13

120 minutes

When his son dies while hiking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in the Pyrenees, a grieving father decides to complete the 500-mile trek to Spain.

Cast:Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Deborah Kara UngerGenre ramas, Independent Movies, Dramas based on Books, Independent DramasThis movie is:Emotional, Inspiring, Understated

[CTyankee]

87. I missed that one. It sounds very interesting...another note to self to pick that one up...

thanks for the tip!

[flamingdem]

37. What's up with people risking their lives over mountains

Imagine not being able to know what's going on in the news in 10 years all because of some dumb mountain climbing expedition. Yay sedentary life!

[HappyMe]

39. Wtf?

Just because I'm not inclined to climb a mountain doesn't mean I'm all good with a sedentary life. There are other forms of exercise that don't involve getting eaten by vultures.

[flamingdem]

45. I'm referring to myself

though I've been known to move now and then

[HappyMe]

46. Oh! I'm sorry.

I completely misunderstood.

[struggle4progress]

24. No name for victim. No precise date for incident. No precise location for incident.

Much of the coverage includes claims vultures are eating live animals and discusses calls for hunting the vultures

Hmmm ...

[Jamastiene]

82. That stood out to me too.

I have a gut feeling it is a pro hunting blind item...or something like that.

[get the red out]

30. They are efficient

Nature works that way.

[aristocles]

31. As Thomas Hobbes wrote:

"...continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

[nolabear]

35. Vultures gotta vultch.

[GoCubsGo]

41. Yep. "Circle of Life" and all.

Vultures are scavengers, and they don't discriminate.

[Poll_Blind]

43. I agree. Don't hate the raptor, hate the maim. nt

PB

[Bucky]

49. *

[nolabear]

53. Oh, Sweet Jesus.

I want that on a shirt.

[Posteritatis]

55. [wail of anguish] (nt)

[stuntcat]

64. LOL

[Nevernose]

44. I "rescued" some French tourists in Death Valley a few months ago

Are bad shortcuts through inhospitable terrain characteristically French? Because I used to associate France with an awesome variety of cheese.

[Bucky]

47. Pipe down, people. I'm trying to think up how I can blame this on Ted Cruz.

Dont get snarky, he's probably busy trying to figure out how this same incident was a result of Benghazi

[datasuspect]

52. vultures get hungry too

[Blue_Tires]

59. Isn't the story "Woman Dies After Falling Off Cliff?"

Does anyone really give a shit about vulture eating habits?

[MFM008]

62. fast food.....

I understand the lady was gone after a fall. That is unfortunate. Now before anyone has a rhino, I wouldnt mind the winged clean up crew cleaning up my leavings. It will take them longer than 50 minutes........................

[Jamastiene]

83. It will take longer for me too.

I'm stringy.

[Honeycombe8]

65. Well, I guess that means she was recycled.

If I'm dead first, I guess that'd be okay with me. That's the way nature keeps itself clean and provides for itself.

[MzShellG]

68. Thought humans were at the top of the food chain.....

But seriously, how sad to die that way. Im afraid of heights over that very possibility.

[Nye Bevan]

69. All-you-care-to-eat (limited time only) (nt)

[sadbear]

70. Circle of Life.

Simba would be proud.

[Liberal_in_LA]

71. whoa

[MrScorpio]

73. Hopefully, she was a Zoroastrian. nt

[dimbear]

78. It sounds better if you refer to the process as excarnation.

Always liked that word.