Germany's Cadaver-Scouting Vultures

Move out of the way, police dogs!

German police have a new best friend–the vulture. A team of three carrion-seeking birds have been trained to help officers find bodies. The only hitch is that the birds tend to peck at their finds. Um, yeah. That could be a problem.

Named Sherlock, Miss Marple and Colombo, the three vultures all have keen eyesight and an acute sense of smell. The idea is that birds could do a better job in handling rough terrain and scanning larger areas. Which is great and all but I hope the police remember that vultures are scavengers. So don’t be surprised if a body is missing a couple eyeballs and has more flesh wounds than it should because of the vultures.

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