Vultures are predominantly seen as evil birds and are also used for ritual but far more than this belief is their key role in keeping a healthy ecosystem through their scavenging activities, according to Miriam Longe, TV host and author of books.
Longe, the author of children’s book “Vulture to the rescue: the cleanup crew”, spoke about the importance of vultures to the environment and the need for children to be educated about them in her book reading event on Friday in Lagos.
She explained that vultures are large birds that feed on the remains of dead animals, so they get rid of dead animals and plants and matter.
“As a Save vulture campaign ambassador I’m meant to use my voice, whatever platform I have in my circle of influence to push and propagate the message of conservation, protection of our environment and vultures”,Longe said.
Research reveals that vultures eat far more meat than all other predators put together, about 25, 000 tons (25 million kg) a year.
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She said the need to change the orientation and mindset of kids towards this creature is really important.
“I believe that if you really want to change the mindset of people it is important that you carry the children along and It’s is better to have well informed children as they’ll be here longer than us, so they can grow up to be well informed adult that can take well informed decisions for our environment,” Longe said.
She also advised that matters regarding the environment should be taken seriously.
“It is important that we start to have this conversations with everyday people, in schools, at home, in the office, the way we have conversations about politics, and the way we have conversations about religion and weather.
The environment should be on that same list, we should talk about climate change and the things we are doing that is causing that, we should talk about the fact that we need to ditch plastic and pick up other sustainable materials, we should talk about growing plants and growing trees,” Longe said.
