Save these obese Columbian buzzards

Race to Save Fat Colombian Buzzards as Dump Closes

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - A Colombian environmentalist is working to save buzzards at a garbage dump who got so fat gorging on trash they couldn't even fly.

A new, more sanitary garbage disposal center outside the Caribbean city of Santa Marta is burying waste within 15 minutes -- hardly giving the 7,000 hungry buzzards time for a light snack, Alex Rodriguez told daily El Tiempo. Many of the buzzards, a type of vulture, are so fat they are unable to fly to look for carrion, their natural food, he said.

Rodriguez has asked authorities to relocate the buzzards to a place where they can survive while they practice flying and remember their instinctive appetite for animal corpses.
"They've lost their fear of people and they jostle around with the human rubbish recyclers, with the machinery, in the strong wind, looking for food," he said, adding that his campaign had attracted 700 telephone calls of support.
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