Megan's Nature Nook
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It’s almost time for turkey with Thanksgiving right around the corner. Although Wild Turkeys are interesting, we’re going to be talking about a different turkey, the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) and some of its close vulture relatives. (But if you do like Wild Turkeys, read my previous blog post for some fun facts and turkey jokes!) I recently watched a presentation by Dr. Lauren Pharr Parks, PhD, Forensic Anthropologist hosted by the Zumbro Valley Audubon Society. The topic of this presentation? How vultures impact crime scenes. I had never heard of this concept before now, but I find it fascinating! Vultures are often seen as gross because they eat rotting meat, ugly because of their bald heads, or even scary because of their association with death. But in reality, they are none of these things! They are very interesting birds that play a very important role in our ecosystems cleaning up dead animal carcasses and helping to keep the environment clean. Although animal carcasses are their main choice of food, vultures will also scavenge on human bodies, which in turn can impact crime scenes. Vultures accelerate the decomposition time as they are able to consume a body, leaving just the skeleton behind, in as little as five hours. Because of this accelerated decomposition time, it can throw off time of death estimates detectives investigating murders have set. This is where Dr. Lauren Pharr Parks steps in. Dr. Parks conducted a controlled study through Louisiana State University to provide new information for the forensic community to determine if a body was scavenged or if it was natural decomposition. Depending on if a body was scavenged or went through natural decomposition, forensic scientists and detectives can then more accurately estimate a time of death. If scavenging isn’t taken into account, there is an overestimate of time between death and discovery. In other instances, marks from vultures scavenging may be mistaken as trauma. The data collected in her study will help the forensic community to make more informed decisions about crime scenes. They’ll be able to more accurately estimate how long a body has been there and to determine if the body was scavenged by vultures, other scavengers (like coyotes or raccoons), or if skeletal trauma was inflicted by humans. All this information will help them to better understand the timeline of events and get a better insight as to what really happened at the scene of the crime. In order to know if vultures have impacted a crime scene, you have to know what signs to look for. Dr. Parks’ study was conducted at a body farm (read more about body farms at the end of this post) and other properties in Texas using small pig carcasses and human cadavers. She set up trail cameras to see what animals were coming to the carcasses and cadavers. She documented how long it took for vultures to find the bodies, scavenge the bodies, and kept track of signs the vultures left behind. She came up with a list of 16 signs to look for to know if a vulture has been at the scene. Here are a few of those signs:
This last one is the most interesting to me. Down feathers are very fluffy since they help to insulate birds to keep them warm. Once a down feather has become wet, it won’t “fluff up” again. This can be a very helpful clue when trying to determine how long a body has been there. Let’s say a body has been found where vulture scavenging was evident. There were down feathers at the scene, and they were all “un-fluffy” meaning they have gotten wet. You can then look at the past weather and see that it rained five days ago and hasn’t rained since. Because of this information you know the body had been found by the vultures and was scavenged at least five days ago. Then you can add in the approximate time it takes for vultures to find a body and you’ve narrowed your time of death window down quite a bit. This more accurate window will allow crime scene investigators to then look at missing persons reports and more accurately put the pieces of their crime together. Dr. Parks also found out that down feathers stay at a site for about two weeks and after that time frame will then disperse from the scene by natural means such as wind. It is quite interesting how such a small feather can be such a big clue! Vultures are such amazing and important creatures, not only because of their interesting characteristics and important role in the ecosystem, but now because of the information they can provide to help solve crimes – such a fascinating topic! Listen to Dr. Parks talk more about vultures and their impact on crime scenes in her TED Talk. (This talk contains graphic images). Body Farms Body farms are facilities where people can donate their bodies to science after they pass away. You can look at is as an outdoor laboratory. Bodies are brought to a facility and used for a variety of research projects. A body farm’s main goal is to learn more about the decomposition process and gain a further understanding in forensics. Some bodies may stay at a body farm for up to two years depending on the type of research program it is in. Body farms can range in size and there are currently five in the United States. Tennessee - University of Tennessee at Knoxville North Carolina - Western Carolina University in Cullowhee Texas - Texas State University in San Marcos and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville Pennsylvania - California University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Criminological and Forensic Sciences To learn more about Body Farms, listen to episode #68 “All the Time in the World” on the Criminal podcast.
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