Want to find a corpse? What better way than to follow vultures? German police plan to do just that by equipping vultures with GPS tracking devices and releasing them into remote areas when people are missing and presumed dead. It might seem macabre to some and clever to others but will it be effective? Only time will tell…
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy, their son, Desmond Shearwater, and their indoor cat, B.B. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.
In Arizona, many of the California Condors that were released into the area as part of the reintroduction program have GPS tags. Biologist routinely follow up on “ground hits” (places were the GPS indicates the bird stopped moving for a period of time, either perching or feeding on the ground) in an effort to understand their feeding requirements, and have found at least 1 human body that I know of; a man who apparently committed suicide by leaping into the Grand Canyon.
So… It certainly could work other places.