On Saturday, October 14, EcoReach volunteered at the Athens-Clarke County Vulture Festival. Attendees had the opportunity to stop by our booth and learn about the level of acidity that vulture stomach’s contain and comparing vulture stomachs to a cat’s and an echidna’s (showing how vultures have the highest level of acidity in their stomach in the entire animal kingdom with a pH of 1.2).
This booth was set up by displaying three beakers filled with water, each colored differently to help distinguish between the different species. Labels can be placed in front accordingly. Three alka-seltzer tablets were added to the vulture beaker, two were added to the cat beaker, and half of a tablet was added to the echidna beaker. The bubbly reaction to occurred as a result of this stimulated the organisms’ “stomach” and the digestive process taking place inside.
Kids were also encouraged to take “vulture pee” (hand sanitizer colored yellow) to learn about the sanitizing quality of a vulture’s urination.
The festival, which is hosted annually at the ACC landfill outdoor classroom, also had bird showings, facility tours and nature walks. Kids were able to learn about the important roles that vultures play in keeping our ecosystems clean by visiting booths like ours and others.
Thank you to everyone who came out and volunteered with us!
Interested to find out about upcoming programs and opportunities with EcoReach? Email us at ecoreachuga@gmail.com for more information!
