Historic Public Attitudes to Old World Vultures

Vultures have long been associated with spiritual powers, the afterlife and heavenly contacts. One of the oldest temples in the world, Gobekli Tepe of Neolithic Anatolia of the ninth millennium BCE in southeast Turkey, includes stone pillars with carvings depicting many birds including vultures, a vulture figure sitting with a ball (or the sun) in its hands, and numerous limestone vulture figurines. There is a possibility that sun figures represent the ancient, regional view that vultures and other soaring scavenging birds carried the bodies of the dead to heaven (Curry 2008; Van Dooren 2011). In another site, the ancient town of Catal Huyuk of the seventh millennium BCE, vulture skulls are stuck in wall features, and paintings depict vultures in association with headless human figures, probably corpses. Another picture shows a person wearing a sling, beside a corpse, with vultures approaching, representing either a person warding vultures off a corpse, or beckoning them to a feast (Mellaart 1967; Peters and Schmidt 2004). It is possible that exposure of the dead to vultures was practiced at this site, because there is evidence that bones were placed on the ground after the flesh had been removed (MacQueen 1978).

Van Dooren (2011: 97) notes that 'among the peoples of the ancient world, however, none held the vulture in higher regard than the Egyptians', as the vulture appeared as a 'protective and mothering figure' and a scavenger of carrion on the battlefield.' In ancient Egyptian mythology, the vulture was associated with several goddesses, especially Nekhbet and Mut (te Velde 2008). Nekhbet was associated with both birth and death, related to the double perspective on the vulture. There was also a belief in the 'spell of a golden vulture' (Faulkner 2008; Van Dooren 2011). A few words would be inscribed in a golden vulture that would be positioned around the neck of a dead person, and the same words would be uttered over the body for the protection of the spirit of the deceased. There is also evidence that such rites were performed for the living, as a medical document, the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, dated around 1700 BCE, describes words to be uttered over two vulture feathers, to be borne by people to prevent sickness (Mackinney 1942). Possible reasons for the status of the vulture was the belief in their female identity (possibly due to the minimum sexual dimorphism of vultures) (Winter and Winter 1995; Houston 2001), and a perceived commitment to breeding and nesting (including, as noted by Horapollo, the notion that a vulture mother would even give her blood to her starving young).

One of the important factors in the relationship between people and vultures in the Old World was the practice of leaving the dead in particular places for vultures to eat (Pain et al. 2003; see also Schuz and Konig 1983). This followed the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster (Zoroastrianism), which probably started around the beginning of the first millennium BCE in ancient Persia. In this Persian culture, the dead were sometimes left in open stone towers for the vultures to strip them of their flesh. This practice declined, as did Zoroastrianism in Persia with the advent of Islam. The practice moved to India, with the Parsi descendants of Zoroastrianism, and communities in Mumbai and Gujarat, among others. This ancient practice, termed 'dokhimenishini', has influenced cultural attitudes to vultures for centuries (Modi 1979; Williams 1997; Hinnells 2005; Van Dooren 2011). The Parsees are described as believing that fire, earth, and water are sacred and not to be contaminated with human corpses. The result is the construction of 'towers of silence' allowing only avian scavengers access to corpses. In Mumbai these towers were built 400 years ago. With an average of three bodies a day added to the towers, vultures could consume an entire human corpse in 30 minutes leaving only bones by nightfall (Pain et al. 2003). With the collapse of the vulture populations in India, the avian visitors are only kites and crows, which are unable to consume bodies with the same speed as vultures.

There is a broadly similar culture, among the Tibetan Buddhists of the Himalayas termed 'Sky Burials', which largely came to Western attention through the writings of Friar Odoric in the 14th century. Arguably due to the relative absence of timber resources for cremation in the barren, rocky and ice-covered Himalayas, corpses are offered to vultures, after religious ceremonies (Martin 1996; Bruno 2005). Even the bones would be ground down and mixed with blood or barley for the consumption of the vultures. The consumption by vultures of all the flesh and bones was of vital significance, as it was 'well known that a man must have been wicked in life whose body is rejected by the vultures and wolves' (Wollaston 1922: 12). Van Dooren (2011: 70) notes that both the Indian and Chinese systems are based on religious doctrines and also the idea of charity, or giving the birds alms.

Other cultures portray a more violent relationship between people and vultures. Examples may be found in ancient Greek mythology. The Hesiods Theogony describes the titan Prometheus as punished by Zeus, after his theft of fire from the gods for people, by being bound to a rock with a shaft through his waist, and liver (regenerated each night) consumed daily by an eagle (Evelyn-White 1920). Later literature replaces the eagle with a vulture (Bullfinch 2000).

Another common theme is the portrayal of vultures devouring the bodies of the losing side in battles. In the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, a stone carving called the Steele of Vultures has been dated to about 2400 BCE, and depicts the defeat of the city-state of Umma by the neighboring King Eannatum of Lagash. The bodies of the losers appear to be trampled by the victors and devoured by vultures (Winter 1985). Another example is the Egyptian Battlefield Palette of the Predynastic period, which shows vultures, other avian scavengers and lions devouring the dead (Mundy et al. 1992). Another is example from ancient Assyria, from the period of Tiglath-Pileser, is a stone carved picture of two armored horsemen riding with a vulture flying above them, carrying what appears to be entrails (Van Dooren 2011).

Aristotle in his 'History of Animals' noted that large numbers of vultures followed armies before battles. This influenced many later Western writers. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville of the 7th century CE described vultures as being similar to eagles, in that they could detect corpses over great distances, possibly even beyond the seas (Barney 2005). This belief in long distance sensing was echoed by Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the 13th century (Steele 2004), and arguably relates to the writings of John Milton, who notes that vultures arrive at battlefields just at the right time for scavenging (Milton 1968).

The Romans also had opinions of vultures. In the Life of Romulus, Plutarch writes that the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus used vultures to determine the location of the future city. Hence, 'Romans, in their divinations from birds, chiefly regard the vulture'.

Later European thinkers wrote ideas based on ancient Egyptian and other roots, and perceived vultures within medical ideas. 'Vultures have often been connected to human health and wellbeing', and unlike the 'symbolic and religious' focus of the ancient Egyptians, 'the European Epistula Vultaris calls for the use vultures' body parts to achieve medical and magical ends' (Van Dooren 201l: 108). Although there are several versions of the Epistula Vultaris, some versions promote the use of vulture parts for curing physical ailments such as migraines and epilepsy and also spiritual ailments such as sorcery and demon possession (Mackinney 1943). These ideas, including some from Pliny the Elders Natural History of the 1st century CE, influenced later medical work, for example the Parnassus Medicinalis Illustratus of the 15th century, the Dictionnaire Universel des Drogues Simples and Universal-Lexicon of the 18th century, and the Historie des Medicaments of the late 19th century (Zedler 1732-54; Mackinney 1942).

Later writers in Europe scorned vultures. Van Dooren (2011: 50) quotes Goldsmith (1816) in his comparison of vultures and eagles, as representative of a dominant mindset of the period:

'The first rank in the description has been given to the eagle; not because it is stronger or larger than the vulture, but because it is more generous and bold. The eagle, unless pressed by famine, will not stoop to carrion; and never devours but what he has earned by his own pursuit. The vulture, on the contrary, is indelicately voracious; and seldom attacks living animals, when it can be supplied with the dead. The eagle meets and singly opposes his enemy; the vulture, if it expects resistance, calls in the aid of its kind, and basely overpowers its prey by a cowardly combination. Putrefaction and stench, instead of deterring, only serve to allure them.'

During the 19th century, people were portrayed as vultures in political cartoons; these implied a person, e.g., a banker, politician, media person or business person who preyed on others in dishonest fashion. Examples are 'vulture fund', 'vulture investor' and 'vulture capitalist' quoted from the 2006 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (Van Dooren 2011: 53).

In southern Africa, there were various perspectives on vultures. The Zulus saw vultures as possessing prophetic vision, predicting for example a death in the home by calling outside the house. They could predict rain and even locate missing livestock (Mander et al. 2007). Possibly, these beliefs promoted the associated trade in vulture body parts, which were believed to confer clairvoyant powers and greater intelligence on the user (Cunningham 1990). To obtain such parts, poisoning, shooting and trapping of vultures is common, with poisoning of carcasses to kill vultures being of serious conservation concern (Mundy et al. 1992; McKean 2007; Boshoff and Anderson 2008).

Vultures have also been associated with kings and regal power (Van Dooren 2011). For example, there is the vulture king Jatayu from the epic Ramayana of the Hindu religion in India. The epic story concerns a prince Rama and his brothers, who are incarnations of the God Vishnu. Born to destroy the demon king Ravana, a conflict begins when Rama's wife Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, and the vulture God Jatayu, who is killed in combat with Ravana, aids Rama by telling him the location and future of his quest to find his kidnapped wife. This legend apparently influences positive feelings towards vultures in modern India and Nepal (Griffith 1870-74; Baral et al. 2007). A similar myth is found in ancient China where the God Shaohao, is connected to birds, and started a kingdom were phoenixes appeared, but possibly was a vulture king and his subjects other birds (Yang and An 2005).