[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
my parents always wanted me to be a
doctor but a doctor that studies how
vultures eat dead things is probably not
the type of doctor my parents had in
mind
I study Bulger scavenging behavior and
how vultures affect crime scenes I’m
here to talk to you about how we take
vultures for granted in forensic science
before we do that I want to tell you a
story so we’re going to take a trip all
1,000 of us it’s May 2014 and we’re
standing in a park in Nashville
Tennessee because we’ve been at a horse
race as we wait for the Porta Potty we
see two ladies and their Sunday best
heels pearls and lovely floppy derby
hats at any moment we expect them to
start talking about their grandma’s
slide China but they don’t instead we
hear them say oh look something must be
dead we look up and to the left and see
vultures circling round and round it
occurred to me at this very moment that
if these ladies at the Derby are aware
of ultras connection to death then why
aren’t we talking more about these birds
at crime scenes people know that
vultures are connected to death but they
don’t really understand how for example
here’s an email I received from a
detective in Louisiana Lauren there’s
been a kidnapping
what buzzards or vultures do we have in
Louisiana before we address the
kidnapping I’ll first address this
Buzzard vulture question I get all the
time
buzzards don’t live in the United States
they are hawks that live in Europe the
big black birds you see circling in the
sky within the u.s. are vultures the two
types of vultures that live in Louisiana
or the turkey vulture and black vulture
to fully understand the role of vultures
in forensic science I’ll walk you
through this forensic case from the
email certain things become apparent we
can assume the detective thinks the
individual is dead
and he wants to use the birds to try to
find the body like the ladies in
Nashville the detective thinks that
vultures circling in the sky will lead
him to the body it’s not that simple I
don’t know if you’ve ever seen a vulture
up close or spent much time with them
but they’re huge huge six-foot wingspan
vulture circle in the air because they
are too big to flap their wings and fly
so they soar they soar in thermals which
are vortexes or little tornadoes caused
by pressure differences in the air the
form throughout the day as the Sun heats
up the ground therefore when you see a
circling vulture the bird is usually
traveling from point A to B rather than
circling above something dead actually
if you want to use a vulture to try to
find a body look for a vulture in a tree
or on a fence post vultures are too big
and slow to hunt so they have to
scavenge in fact vultures are the only
animals in the world that depend upon
death is a food source the turkey
vultures that you see here is super cool
because it’s one of the few bird species
that can actually smell it hones in on
the deceased by sensing a chemical that
is coming off the body during decay the
evolutionary role of the vulture is to
rid the earth of harmful toxins produced
falling death once death has been
detected the turkey vulture lands and
quickly scavenges vultures usually
remove the eyes first then tear the skin
start pulling the tissues and leave you
with a skeleton therefore the importance
of vultures is not in the air but on the
ground
vulture scavenging is somewhat gruesome
if you’re ever on a bad first date just
reference this talk and I don’t think
you’ll have to worry about your
potential suitor giving you another call
although gruesome vultures are key
forensic players and here’s why vultures
will consume a dead human just like they
will
roadkill but you don’t ever hear about
that
and it’s because vultures are so good at
what they do if vultures depend on death
for survival and if they scavenge humans
then how can vultures be absent from
forensic textbooks and training manuals
the answer the tradition has been for
researchers to exclude animal scavengers
from decomposition studies by placing a
cage over the decaying subject matter
why because researchers were afraid an
animal would run away with their subject
matter and they wouldn’t have any data
to report consequently excluding animals
results in a lengthy skeletonization
process and this information is
currently what detectives use during
investigations a lot of times at a crime
scene if people see a skeletonized body
they think wow this has been here for a
really long time
undiscovered oh no no no no no no
vultures accelerate decay and the
skeletonized body could have been there
for as little as five days if scavenged
by vultures the failure to account for
vulture scavenging can result in
forensic scientists inaccurately
estimating how long someone has been
dead and then searching through the
wrong missing-persons files therefore
the goal is to get forensic scientists
to focus on vulture evidence and to get
law enforcement to consider vulture
scavenging and a possible recent death
when skeletal remains are found let’s
get back to the importance of the
kidnapping case I responded to the
detectives and told them that vultures
like areas of water they like areas with
white-tailed deer they typically arrive
within the first five days falling death
they’re going to leave an intact spinal
column and feathers the detectives write
back and say we found the body buried in
a shallow grave we also found the
feathers you mentioned but there
appeared to be a problem because the
feathers were located 40 yards from
where the body was found the feathers
were next to a bloody pinecone vultures
aren’t attracted to blood and they
typically don’t wander they might wonder
forty feet but they’re not going to
wander forty yards that would be a waste
of inner
for a bird that doesn’t know when it
will get its next meal so my first job
here was to determine if vultures were
at the scene indeed the feather by the
pine cone was consistent with the turkey
vulture so why in the world would a
vulture wonder forty yards one of the
reasons I love vultures is because they
tend to operate in a manner that can be
explained by biology and physics I
started mentally going through the
numerous baiting experiments I had
conducted at a body farm in Texas a body
farm is a place we can donate your body
to science I also went through my
experiences with trapping and GPS
tagging vultures and then the year-long
process of monitoring vultures via
remote GPS technology next I brought up
my field notes and had an aha moment I
knew of two things that would lure
vulture forty yards from a body guts and
brain matter I presented this
information to the detectives and
learned that they suspected the victim
had been incapacitated by blunt-force
trauma to the head the blow to the head
was thought to have occurred in the area
where the pine cone was found and then
the victim was drugged 40 yards and
buried in a shallow grave this suggested
that brain matter was the lure for the
vulture and illustrates how studying
vulture behavior can help piece together
some of the evidence the detectives also
sent me this photo the victims arm is
sticking up out of the grave as a
forensic scientist you have to think
about the whole picture the feather by
the pine cone indicated the vultures
were at the scene this crime scene photo
also depicts characteristic vulture
scavenging behavior we zoom in we see a
white down feather which is
characteristic of the turkey vulture
also note that the skin has a cut light
tear near the wrist the turkey vulture
smells the decay lands it can get
through the pine needles pull out the
hand it’s going to tear the skin with
its beak and then start pulling the soft
tissues away from the bone
just tear and pull tear and pull tear
and pull this photo illustrates the
scavenging efficiency of vultures this
is important because it helps support
the timeline the detectives are putting
together for the murder there’s not a
whole lot of evidence you’re not likely
going to see the vultures at the crime
scene instead vulture just leave these
very subtle clues rather than looking
for the vulture look for the feathers
and pristine bones vultures are
important because they are so good and
fast at what they do
they’re like tornadoes if you blink
you’ll miss them I provide in my opinion
about the vulture evidence to the
detective and he presented the vulture
evidence in court the kidnapping case
was a death penalty case
and the defendant was found guilty this
case illustrates how studying vulture
behavior helps innovate forensic science
someone who has been murdered deserves
the most thorough investigation possible
when we include vultures in forensic
studies we pay a more thorough picture
of what happened when it happened and
who it happened to so the next time you
are at a crime scene with a dead body
look to the ground to find the clues
vultures have left and if anyone ever
brings up vultures on a date you’ll know
they’re a keeper
thank you
[Applause]
you
[Music]
[Applause]
my parents always wanted me to be a
doctor but a doctor that studies how
vultures eat dead things is probably not
the type of doctor my parents had in
mind
I study Bulger scavenging behavior and
how vultures affect crime scenes I’m
here to talk to you about how we take
vultures for granted in forensic science
before we do that I want to tell you a
story so we’re going to take a trip all
1,000 of us it’s May 2014 and we’re
standing in a park in Nashville
Tennessee because we’ve been at a horse
race as we wait for the Porta Potty we
see two ladies and their Sunday best
heels pearls and lovely floppy derby
hats at any moment we expect them to
start talking about their grandma’s
slide China but they don’t instead we
hear them say oh look something must be
dead we look up and to the left and see
vultures circling round and round it
occurred to me at this very moment that
if these ladies at the Derby are aware
of ultras connection to death then why
aren’t we talking more about these birds
at crime scenes people know that
vultures are connected to death but they
don’t really understand how for example
here’s an email I received from a
detective in Louisiana Lauren there’s
been a kidnapping
what buzzards or vultures do we have in
Louisiana before we address the
kidnapping I’ll first address this
Buzzard vulture question I get all the
time
buzzards don’t live in the United States
they are hawks that live in Europe the
big black birds you see circling in the
sky within the u.s. are vultures the two
types of vultures that live in Louisiana
or the turkey vulture and black vulture
to fully understand the role of vultures
in forensic science I’ll walk you
through this forensic case from the
email certain things become apparent we
can assume the detective thinks the
individual is dead
and he wants to use the birds to try to
find the body like the ladies in
Nashville the detective thinks that
vultures circling in the sky will lead
him to the body it’s not that simple I
don’t know if you’ve ever seen a vulture
up close or spent much time with them
but they’re huge huge six-foot wingspan
vulture circle in the air because they
are too big to flap their wings and fly
so they soar they soar in thermals which
are vortexes or little tornadoes caused
by pressure differences in the air the
form throughout the day as the Sun heats
up the ground therefore when you see a
circling vulture the bird is usually
traveling from point A to B rather than
circling above something dead actually
if you want to use a vulture to try to
find a body look for a vulture in a tree
or on a fence post vultures are too big
and slow to hunt so they have to
scavenge in fact vultures are the only
animals in the world that depend upon
death is a food source the turkey
vultures that you see here is super cool
because it’s one of the few bird species
that can actually smell it hones in on
the deceased by sensing a chemical that
is coming off the body during decay the
evolutionary role of the vulture is to
rid the earth of harmful toxins produced
falling death once death has been
detected the turkey vulture lands and
quickly scavenges vultures usually
remove the eyes first then tear the skin
start pulling the tissues and leave you
with a skeleton therefore the importance
of vultures is not in the air but on the
ground
vulture scavenging is somewhat gruesome
if you’re ever on a bad first date just
reference this talk and I don’t think
you’ll have to worry about your
potential suitor giving you another call
although gruesome vultures are key
forensic players and here’s why vultures
will consume a dead human just like they
will
roadkill but you don’t ever hear about
that
and it’s because vultures are so good at
what they do if vultures depend on death
for survival and if they scavenge humans
then how can vultures be absent from
forensic textbooks and training manuals
the answer the tradition has been for
researchers to exclude animal scavengers
from decomposition studies by placing a
cage over the decaying subject matter
why because researchers were afraid an
animal would run away with their subject
matter and they wouldn’t have any data
to report consequently excluding animals
results in a lengthy skeletonization
process and this information is
currently what detectives use during
investigations a lot of times at a crime
scene if people see a skeletonized body
they think wow this has been here for a
really long time
undiscovered oh no no no no no no
vultures accelerate decay and the
skeletonized body could have been there
for as little as five days if scavenged
by vultures the failure to account for
vulture scavenging can result in
forensic scientists inaccurately
estimating how long someone has been
dead and then searching through the
wrong missing-persons files therefore
the goal is to get forensic scientists
to focus on vulture evidence and to get
law enforcement to consider vulture
scavenging and a possible recent death
when skeletal remains are found let’s
get back to the importance of the
kidnapping case I responded to the
detectives and told them that vultures
like areas of water they like areas with
white-tailed deer they typically arrive
within the first five days falling death
they’re going to leave an intact spinal
column and feathers the detectives write
back and say we found the body buried in
a shallow grave we also found the
feathers you mentioned but there
appeared to be a problem because the
feathers were located 40 yards from
where the body was found the feathers
were next to a bloody pinecone vultures
aren’t attracted to blood and they
typically don’t wander they might wonder
forty feet but they’re not going to
wander forty yards that would be a waste
of inner
for a bird that doesn’t know when it
will get its next meal so my first job
here was to determine if vultures were
at the scene indeed the feather by the
pine cone was consistent with the turkey
vulture so why in the world would a
vulture wonder forty yards one of the
reasons I love vultures is because they
tend to operate in a manner that can be
explained by biology and physics I
started mentally going through the
numerous baiting experiments I had
conducted at a body farm in Texas a body
farm is a place we can donate your body
to science I also went through my
experiences with trapping and GPS
tagging vultures and then the year-long
process of monitoring vultures via
remote GPS technology next I brought up
my field notes and had an aha moment I
knew of two things that would lure
vulture forty yards from a body guts and
brain matter I presented this
information to the detectives and
learned that they suspected the victim
had been incapacitated by blunt-force
trauma to the head the blow to the head
was thought to have occurred in the area
where the pine cone was found and then
the victim was drugged 40 yards and
buried in a shallow grave this suggested
that brain matter was the lure for the
vulture and illustrates how studying
vulture behavior can help piece together
some of the evidence the detectives also
sent me this photo the victims arm is
sticking up out of the grave as a
forensic scientist you have to think
about the whole picture the feather by
the pine cone indicated the vultures
were at the scene this crime scene photo
also depicts characteristic vulture
scavenging behavior we zoom in we see a
white down feather which is
characteristic of the turkey vulture
also note that the skin has a cut light
tear near the wrist the turkey vulture
smells the decay lands it can get
through the pine needles pull out the
hand it’s going to tear the skin with
its beak and then start pulling the soft
tissues away from the bone
just tear and pull tear and pull tear
and pull this photo illustrates the
scavenging efficiency of vultures this
is important because it helps support
the timeline the detectives are putting
together for the murder there’s not a
whole lot of evidence you’re not likely
going to see the vultures at the crime
scene instead vulture just leave these
very subtle clues rather than looking
for the vulture look for the feathers
and pristine bones vultures are
important because they are so good and
fast at what they do
they’re like tornadoes if you blink
you’ll miss them I provide in my opinion
about the vulture evidence to the
detective and he presented the vulture
evidence in court the kidnapping case
was a death penalty case
and the defendant was found guilty this
case illustrates how studying vulture
behavior helps innovate forensic science
someone who has been murdered deserves
the most thorough investigation possible
when we include vultures in forensic
studies we pay a more thorough picture
of what happened when it happened and
who it happened to so the next time you
are at a crime scene with a dead body
look to the ground to find the clues
vultures have left and if anyone ever
brings up vultures on a date you’ll know
they’re a keeper
thank you
[Applause]
you
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