Why Animal Scavengers Protect Your Health

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Worldwide, populations of scavenging animals that feed on rotting carcasses are declining. Scientists are finding that this can seriously hurt human health. NPR science reporter Jonathan Lambert has been looking into how human health is intertwined with scavenging animals and why these animals’ decline could lead to more human disease. Today, he brings all he learned, including how conservation could help, to your earholes.

Check out more of Jon’s reporting on scavengers and human health.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
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0:24.4	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:29.4	Hey, shortwaver is Regina Barber here.
0:32.0	And today I'm joined by NPR science reporter Jonathan Lambert.
0:35.2	Hey, John.
0:35.8	Hey, Gina.
0:36.4	Okay, so you're here today to make a case for
0:39.0	scavengers like vultures and hyenas that they're good for human health. I mean, honestly,
0:45.7	I believe it. They're usually smart. They clean up dead stuff. Yeah, totally. To me, though,
0:50.6	health isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I picture a vulture hunched
0:54.8	over the rancid rotting flesh of a dead cow, tearing strings of lifeless meat from bone until
1:00.5	there's nothing left. I really love this visual you're giving me. Yeah, it's that rotting
1:06.0	stuff laying around that's not good for us humans. Right. And scavenger's taste for that rotting
1:10.8	stuff actually has major benefits for human health, which is maybe around that's not good for us humans. Right. And scavengers' taste for that rotting stuff
1:11.1	actually has major benefits for human health, which is maybe best conveyed by a little story.
1:17.0	Excellent. I love stories. Let's do this. Okay, so we're going to India. Way back in the early
1:22.3	1990s, there were some 50 million vultures across India. But in the mid-90s, they started vanishing.
1:29.4	And over the course of several years, their numbers plummeted by like 95%.
1:34.0	95%.
	...

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