In the Pyrinees you can meet (fortunately, from distance) many vultures. They fly over you, high in the sky, lazily and effortless...
After a while, they lose interest and go away.
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Photo: Wikipedia
I believe that is a photo of a Griffon Vulture. They are indigenous to the Pyrenees.
In late April - early May 2013, two French women were day-hiking in the Pyrenees (not on the Camino). One of them slipped and fell off the mountain trail a few hundred meters while wearing a day pack.
Her companion dialed 112. By the time the emergency services arrived at the fallen woman. The Griffon Vultures has stripped all exposed flesh. It was determined that the woman broke her neck in the fall and was dead before the vultures got to her. At the time, late April, early May 2013, this story was widely reported in the media.
The interesting thing about this unfortunate situation is that the vultures normal food was the carcasses of farm animals that died on the high pastures. Farmers simply left dead animals to be consumed by the vultures.
However, once established, the EU created rules forbidding this practice. They required recovery and burial of all farm animal carcasses.
When this occurred, the vultures lost their normal food source. They adapted by going after newborn lambs, calves, and small domestic pets. So, when presented with a fresh human corpse, the vultures did what came naturally.
A gory story, an perhaps a digression from the thread, but interesting all the same.
Just sayin...
