Eats rotten meat
Vultures' faces and large intestines are lined with bacteria that are toxic to many other creatures, but these birds of prey have evolved a strong gut that helps them avoid getting sick from eating rotten meat, a new study has found.
In the first analysis of the bacteria living on vultures, the study's researchers found that these scavengers were full of flesh-degrading Fusobacteria and toxic Clostridia. As bacteria decompose a carcass, they release toxic chemicals that make the carcass a dangerous food for many animals. But hawks often wait for decay and have easy access to dead animals with tough skins.
What's more, vultures often get tasty entrails through the rear end - that is, the anus - of a dead animal. Their diet may be full of toxic bacteria and rotting feces, but vultures appear to be immune to these deadly microbes, the researchers said. [In Photos: Birds of Prey]
"Our results show that hawks are highly adapted to deal with toxic bacteria that digest them," said Michael Rogenbach, a microbiology researcher at the University of Copenhagen, in a statement.
To sample the vultures' bacterial communities — microbes — the team captured and killed 26 black vultures (Coragyps atretus) and 24 turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) in Nashville, Tennessee. Autopsies and DNA tests revealed bacteria that lived on the birds' faces and colons.
Like other vertebrates, vultures had more types of bacteria on their faces than in their guts: 528 different microbes compared to 76.
Bacteria in vultures' gut samples have broken down their prey's DNA, and the birds' gastrointestinal (GI) tracts have harsh chemical conditions, researchers have found. The acidic GI tract also filters out many of the microbes that live on decomposing carrion, so the large intestines have a lot of Clostridia and Fusobacteria.
"On the one hand, vultures have developed extremely tough digestive systems that simply work to destroy the majority of dangerous bacteria they eat," Roggenbuck said. "On the other hand, vultures seem to have developed a tolerance to some deadly bacteria—species that kill other animals appear to be actively growing in the vulture's lower gut."
Both clostridia and fusobacteria appear to have adapted to the vultures' harsh intestinal conditions, but could help the birds by further breaking down nutrients, the researchers said.
The scientists also examined dead samples of captive turkey vultures and other birds such as the red-tailed hawk and the African spotted owl at Copenhagen Zoo. Despite having the same diet as zoo animals, the faecal bacteria of captive falcons more closely resembled the microbes of their brethren in the wild than their avian relatives in the zoo, the researchers found.
Bacterial similarities in vultures indicate that their digestive systems are more influenced by gut bacteria than by diet.
The findings suggest that the relationship between microbes and vulture digestion is more complex than previously thought.
"Avian microbiome terra is unknown, but it is not unreasonable to think that the relationship between birds and their microbiota has been as important in avian evolution as the development of powerful flight and song," said co-researcher Gary Graves of the Smithsonian. Institute of National Museum of Natural History.
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