Happy International Vulture Awareness Day!!! Condor Snappy Vulture
 
Today is all about a very special yet sadly disliked bird. Of all avians, vultures are perhaps among the least beloved birds ever. Ugly; bald; scavenger. All these are what we see of nature’s undertakers. A bird that feeds on nothing but dead animals, makes frightening screeches, and has no beautiful feathers on its head. You could say their so ugly that they got kicked out an ugliness pageant because they didn’t allow professionals. That is so harsh, and, in Fluttershy’s words, so mean! :( (Sad)
 
And it gets worst, their role as scavenger is now threatening their lives, and all thanks to you know who — us! In Africa, whenever poachers shoot elephants for their tusks, rhinos for their horns, and other animals, they leave the bullets behind. And when the vultures come to clean up the mess, they eat the remains of the bullets, and die from lead poisoning. Some have disappeared by more than 90%! Meanwhile, in Asia, farmers are spreading pesticide and herbicide to protect their crops from pests. When the animals ingest them, they die. Unfortunately, when the vultures eat them, they ingest the poison, get visceral gout, and die too. Asian vultures will also die from eating the carcasses of animals treated with diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. And all this has consequences. Without the top scavenger, carcasses rot away to the point where even the toughest scavengers cannot stomach them. This spreads disease and decay, like Anthrax, infecting any animal and person nearby. In Africa, tribal pastoralists lose their cattle to this plague. And in India, stray dogs try to fill the niche, but help spread rabies, and it infects the citizens. As the vultures die, so do the animals AND the humans! All the Old World Vultures are critically endangered species, ousting the giant panda’s title of endangered species. Tears There are even cultures that rely on these birds, like Tibetans or Zoroastrians who perform sky burials. They leave the dead out to be eaten by vultures because while the Tibetans have very little lumber for cremation and the mountain grounds are too tough to shovel up for burials, Zoroastrianism forbids cremation and burials, otherwise they risk defiling fire — the most sacred element — and the earth. So vultures play an important role in human culture as well.
 
But today, you can make a difference. Be aware of the vultures’ plight and see them in a better light other than as villains or harbingers of death and doom. Here’s a tip, watch Walt Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” where four vultures befriend Mowgli and prove that everybody’s got to have friends, even them. Plus, there are two well known organizations that fight to save the vultures: VulPro for the African vultures, S.A.V.E. (Saving Asian Vultures from Extinction) for the, well that’s what the name states, and the Vulture Conservation Foundation. Make donations to them to help our feathered clean-up crew. Not everybody hates vultures. Me and my great friend, Katey (Scarabscorner :iconscarabscorner:) love them with great passion, and we will forever support them for all time. Love Heart
 
 
This year I did something totally different. This time, I’m not just featuring the Buzzard that buzzes from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I also decided to include vulture characters from other cartoons. There is also Mzingo, the African vulture (Rüppell’s vulture to be precise) from The Lion Guard. He was one of the Lion Guard’s enemies, but near the end of the show he and his committe changed their ways and now respect the Circle of Life. And then, there are the four Asian vultures we all know and love, the ones who were perhaps the first ever good vultures to appear in Disney, and sole reason I love all vultures: Buzzie, Flaps, Ziggy, and Dizzy from Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book. I remember when these four were bored until they met Mowgli. Finding him all alone, they decided to be his new friends, even to the point of protecting him from the evil tiger Shere Khan. It’s like they said, they may be shabby, but they got hearts, really big hearts. Now I’m sure none of you were expecting this. This is the first time since my birthday pic to Tara Strong that this pic features not only a My Little Pony character, but mostly those from other cartoons. Well, I did have one idea, but I didn’t like where it was going, so I decided to go into a whole new direction. And while it took a really loooong time to make the vectors for the other vultures, not to mention making some improvisations for some of them, it was all worth it.
 
The background proved to be a tough problem to solve. But remembering how the vulture was regarded as a solar animal throughout many cultures around the world, I decided to put in a sunburst. And to sweeten the deal, and fill in some negative space, I put in the IVAD logo.
 
 
I hope you all love this, and don’t forget to show love and appreciation, or awareness at least, to these magnificent but misunderstood birds, and save them from extinction. “That’s What Friends Are For!” :D (Big Grin)
 
There is some good news. Diclofenac has been banned in 4 countries, which has helped reduce the numbers of contaminated carcasses in India by half within 4 years. Despite that the Asian vulture population is now stable or increasing, it remains low. So pray that they will recover in time.
 
Here are the sites for the organizations:
 
www.vulpro.com
 
“www.save-vultures.org/”:www.save-vultures.org/
 
“www.4vultures.org/”:www.4vultures.org/
 
The Logo has been provided by the official IVAD website and can be found here: www.vultureday.org/wp-content/…