Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today in the podcast, bone-eating vultures that are stashing some surprises in their nests.

So we were expecting to find bones and stick, which is the main element of the nest.

But who would be expecting to find an 800-year shoe?

Nobody.

The bearded vulture is the only animal on earth whose main diet is bones, and one of the very few to

successfully rock a soul patch. But apparently, these vultures aren't just scavenging skeletons.

They've been stashing human artifacts in their nests for hundreds of years. Reporting in the

journal ecology, scientists picked apart 12 preserved vulture nests and found of years. Reporting in the journal Ecology, scientists picked apart 12 preserved

vulture nests and found a museum collection, hundreds of ancient artifacts, including a woven

sandal that could be more than 700 years old. The nests aren't just giving us a glimpse into

vulture culture, but also the lives of the people they lived beside.

Here to dissect the findings is the study author, Dr. Anna Belen-Marine Oroyo, and archaeologists studying ancient human diets at the University of Cantabria in Spain.

Anna, welcome to Science Friday.

Oh, hello. How are you doing?

I'm great. You know,

finding a 700-year-old shoe in a nest seems really surprising to me, but what was it like for you?

Were you expecting to find these artifacts? Not at all. It was even more surprising for us. Really? Yes, because we didn't expect it when we were investigated the die of this birded vulture. So we were expecting to find bones and

stick, which is the main element of the of their nest. But who would be expecting to find an 800 years shoe?

Nobody.

Give us a sense.

What do these birds look like?

...