birding-aus

Vultures and humans

To: Birding-aus <>
Subject: Vultures and humans
From:
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:08:46 +0000
Should be more of it.

I wonder which birds would learn to dispose of human corpses if the practice were introduced in Australia. I guess Black Kites in the inland, but what about coastal areas, it might take a while for suitable predators to learn of this new food source.

John Leonard

On 16/09/2009 8:46am, Scot Mcphee <> wrote:
WARNING. DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH.





This is a slide show of a Tibetan "Sky Funeral". There is a horde of


hungry vultures that make short work of the body.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxyUqI0cS8s





Another warning. IT IS VERY GRAPHIC and shows an ancient Tibetan


funerary practice. DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO IF THE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC


HANDLING OF HUMAN REMAINS CONCERNS YOU. Also the music is terrible;


better to watch it in silence. But fascinating if you can stomach it.





>From wikipedia: "The Tibetan sky-burial practices appear to have


evolved out of practical considerations: a) most of Tibet is above the


tree line, and the scarcity of timber makes cremation economically


unfeasible; b) subsurface interment is equally difficult since the


active layer is not more than a few centimeters deep, with solid rock


or permafrost beneath it. The customs are first recorded in an


indigenous 12th century Buddhist treatise known colloquially as the


Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol). Tibetan tantricism appears to have


influenced the procedure."


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