14 DAY TRIAL // The remains of a tourist have been devoured by Griffon vultures in the French Pyrenees, prompting locals to ask for the scavengers to either be chased out of the region or shot down.
The International Business Times writes that it only took the vultures around 40 to 50 minutes to eat the French woman’s body.
The 52-year-old tourist was hiking in the region along with two friends. She took a fatal 300-meter fall which led to her death.
Authorities have stated that the woman was already dead when the vultures got to her. French news website MYTF1 writes that the tourists arrived at the Pista peak when she took the tumble, on April 14.
“The three hikers wanted to take a shortcut,” said Major Didier Pericou of the gendarmerie.
The woman slipped and fell “at the foot of the north face of the peak.”
Her friends called rescuers, but it took them 35 minutes to reach the location. Pericou described spotting several vultures in the area before finally arriving at the body, some 10 minutes later.
Only the victim's “bones, clothes and shoes” were left after being left on the mountain for less than one hour.
A medical examiner concluded that the victim died before having her body pecked on and eaten, after finding fractures to her femur and ribs.
However, farmers in the area report the Griffon vultures making off with living animals. 42 reports have been filed, claiming that the vultures made over with their livestock.
New EC legislation passed in the area forbids locals from leaving out carcasses of dead animals, making the scavengers scour the area for animals.
“We are seeing three-figure vulture flocks over Belgium and Holland. These birds are fanning out across Europe in search of food,” explains Grahame Madge for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.