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Vultures: Nature's Garbage Men

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published May 4, 2015 at 9:00 AM EDT

Vultures get a bad rap. At best they are thought of as nature's garbage men - not a bad label, by the way. At worst they are considered dirty, disease carrying scavengers - not a true representation either.

Vultures were once thought to be kin to birds of prey such as hawks and eagles, but recent DNA work has revealed a much closer tie to storks, and they are now placed in that family.

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley