(by Bridget, Block 1)
Although vultures have a very disrespected role in the food chain, it is still an important job, to dispose of the leftovers of other animal’s meals. In South Asia this raptor’s existence was being threatened. These vultures were quickly falling into the same ranks as the dinosaurs. So, the question had to be asked why were they dying and what common thing were they exposed to that was causing their deaths?
The vulture or raptor, which means bird of prey, is said to have evolved from the Velociraptor, Sam Neil or Dr. Alan Grant’s worst enemy in Jurassic Park I and III, it was also highlighted in Jurassic Park the Lost World but Sam Neil was not in that one so it does not count and to add to my case it had a horrible plot. Although, these movies may have misrepresented this prehistoric carnivore, it is shown as a scaled monster nearing the height of a full grown man. This was an inaccuracy, the Velociraptor, based on fossil evidence, only grew to about a foot and a half tall and was about six feet long. This Dinosaur, at a max , would be up to an average person's knee. While the movies pictured a scaled monster creeping in the shadow of a densely packed jungle, paleontologist’s believe it was actually covered head to toe in feathers similar to those found on a modern day chicken.
Jurassic Park shows the behavior of the Velciraptor as a creature that is able to plan ahead and create traps for its prey, as Sam Neil and his cast mates represented in various situation in the movies. This is an iIlfound and very far fetched idea; even today there are few animal that can plan ahead to capture prey, especially if their prey can think and plan itself . In the movie, this also translates to their intelligence, in how they operate in packs and hunt prey as a team. Contrary to this, there is little to no evidence supporting these claims. I do think the small reptile would have hunted in a pack even if it was just to take out larger prey or to find food together in a group, safety in numbers. The Velociraptor hunting style may have never have existed since the skeleton had numerous signs of being a scavenger much like its modern day relative, the vulture.
While Steve Speilburg found no use in the scavenger behavior of the raptor, the team in charge of the quest to find out why the oriental white back vulture and the long billed vulture where dying at such an astonishing rate did. They used their feeding habits to trace back the cause of the plague that was wiping out all the vultures in South Asia. The evidence lead them to the dead carcass of cattle, which was a main food source for the vulture. To discover what was poisoning the food supply, the vultures depended on, they investigated the origin of the cattle and found that the cattle was being feed a anti-inflamimatory called diclofenace, a drug which had been banned in many countries. When the Vultures would eat the poisoned cattle, it would cause their kidneys and other organs in their digestive system to shut down.
If this is an example of the raptor’s intelligence, I do not think it was accurately shown in Jurassic Park. If the vultures saw that the others of their species were getting sick from eating the cattle, why eat the same thing unless the food in that area was scarce. These vultures seemed incapable of learning from their past mistakes in the way they continued to eat from the same source. While in the movie the Velciraptor is shown to have this capability, not falling for the same trap twice. In realty, I think the Velciraptor would have the similar intellect to the modern day vulture, even after centuries of evolution, vultures have not being able to achieve this higher level of thinking.
With the illegal use of the drug diclofenace still present in many countries, the fate of these majestic creatures is still in danger.
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