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German Police Train Vultures To Find Bodies
abhatt writes "German authorities have found vultures as very valuable creatures and as such have trained some of them to be detectives. The work of the vultures is well defined — as you might have guessed they are being used to find hidden bodies. From the article: 'A police officer in Hannover, Rainer Herrmann, told reporters that, "The vultures may work much more effectively than sniffer dogs... There's a lot of interest in this. We've had inquiries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.'"
Vultures already knew how to find bodies!
Now they just need to train priests to find missing children!
And they're just testing whether it might be an option.
I actually trained my bloodhounds to find bodies underwater. I would have them sit in the boat and they would put their heads over the gunwales when they were over a dead body they would bay and get excited. Even worked well with moving bodies of water you just had to look a bit further upstream for the bodies which would typically be stuck in underbrush or on a decaying log. Oldest successful tracking on land was 10 days old. Bloodhounds are really amazing creatures.
German police train flies to find shit. Film at 11.
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
As absurd as the idea of needing to train vultures sounds at first, I'd guess the training has more to do with finding human bodies instead of every road kill in 10 km radius, and vulture coming back instead of heading south after having a quick snack from the body found, and other little practicalities like that.
...when the vultures kept eating the bodies they were trained to find. I think families would be a little disturbed if they found out their dearest departed were also 'vulture chow', courtesy of the local constabulary.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
From what I hear, through people some may consider eccentric (undue criticism), vultures show amazing prescience and aptitude. But they've been under prejudice (perhaps well earned) for so long that they are one of those animals that haven't been as thoroughly studied as something cuter or more docile (and not associated with being the last thing you see before you die).
I wonder what the third vulture is thinking. Is there some vulture rule of thumb that only two need to be in the air to find a body, and the third is just doviding tasks by staying on tthe ground (since he noticed that that's what his caretakers are doing)? Or, if theybwere in the wild, perhaps hunting parties include ground members that use tracking skills and other faculties that can't be applied in the air? Or maybe he's just another lazy pig?
Science!
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
on a serious note:
its the same issue with training pigs to find truffles: The real trick is to teach them NOT to eat what they find.
Germany has, on average, approximately 200 murders per year. In total.
How many of those cases involve a long hunt for the body? I don't know, let's guess 10%.
How many of those bodies are dumped out in the open, where a vulture will find it?
Seriously, I'd love to see the cost/benefit analysis for Germany, of all places, to be doing this.
If it were Texas, that'd be a different matter.
Vultures Show German Police How to Find Bodies
They have train vultures now? Ugh... Next time I'm in Germany I'll better take a car or a bus.
I can just imagine how this will work,
I am truly sorry for your loss Miss Gottschalk, but your husband body was found by our flying vulture team. He was floating in the river and his left eye was eaten by one of our teammates.
Saying it kills two birds with might be too much of and inapt metaphor. And it might scare the birds. Would that be construed as interfering with "police work"?
Do they moonlight in sanitation, as wel? Double employment reduces costs and is rated as increased efficiency.
But, I'm confused. Won't the lawyers feel ignored?
What happens when they congregate over parliaments and congresses?
German police declined to comment on why vultures trained to find dead bodies were found flying in frantic circles over local McDonald's restaurants.
Didn't they already use lawyers before?
as the vultures come from a Zoo/breeder in Austria ;-)
Lenin
I think Stalin beat him, but point well made.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
I read the headline as "German Police Train Vultures To Find Boobies".
What's a Train Vulture, and why are Germans policing them?
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2225174&cid=36390518 Because it shows you for who & what you REALLY are, Linux troll?? Absolutely. Caught red-handed, with your pants down troll, lol... can't "face the music" of your OWN screwup, troll??? Again, absolutely.
Seems the troll called "drinkypoo" can troll others, but when it's done to he in a retrolling? He runs away... lol, & from a SIMPLE question.