Vultures’ warnings

Ten vultures fitted with GPS (global positioning system) devices and tiny video cameras have been trained by Peruvian environmental agencies to fly to garbage tips where their video cameras will give the authorities views of illegal trash dumps, reported the website Techly on May 11, 2016. Illegal rubbish dumps are proliferating in the capital city of Lima and the campaign, named Galliano Avisa (vultures warn), is an innovative measure to counter this.

Vulture in Peru fitted with GPS device Photo: Techly website

"Vultures are our allies in the reduction of organic waste. In their search for food, what they’re really doing is identifying places where there is organic matter and garbage. We’re using that… to get the GPS coordinates and monitor these sites,” Javier Hernandez, director of the project told Agence France-Presse.
With almost 10 million people inhabiting the metropolis, Lima’s residents are disposing of their waste in illegal, makeshift tips which pollute the rivers and key water supplies. Peruvian media has reported that only one percent of the 8,000 tons of rubbish produced per day is recycled. In 2014 the World Health Organisation had released a report which revealed that Lima had the worst air pollution of any city in Latin America.