More info: Vultures conserve energy by riding warm air currents, flying in a circling pattern as the day heats up (their long wings are perfect for doing this), and rising on the rising warm air. When a bunch of vultures does this, it’s called a kettle, or kettling. Uniquely among vultures, American turkey vultures can smell decaying flesh from high aloft, keying in on the chemical ethyl mercaptan. This is the same chemical that’s added to natural gas to give it a smell for detection purposes, and explains why gas workers would find these vultures showing up where there was a natural gas leak.
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