Consequences

The California condor is a scavenger, and it eats dead animals either killed by another organism, or that have died on their own. Although we may be disgusted by the fact that this species eats dead animals, it in fact plays an important role in the ecosystem. If there were no organism such as the California condor that eats dead animals, it would mean then that the carcasses of the dead animals would slowly decay. This would allow there to be bacterial growth in the carcasses of the animals, and it would contaminate the area surrounding the carcasses. It would also allow for diseases to become prevalent, diseases such as trichinella.

These diseases would then affect other organisms in the area, which come in contact with the rotting meat, making those organisms sick, and possibly making them die. When they will start to decay, they will contain diseases that could kill other organisms if they come into contact with the rotting carcass. This leads into a cycle where more and more animals will die due to disease, and their carcasses will carry disease, infecting other organisms. This could lead to the extinction of some organisms, and overall undermine the health of individual organisms, and of the environment.

This is a picture of trichenella, a disease which is formed in raw and rotting meat.

This could affect humans who live in the area, since if they come into contact with the rotting meat, they could also contract a disease. As more humans catch diseases caused by coming in contact with rotting meat, the disease could spread from one person to another, overall increasing the amount of disease that is prevalent in the population, This overall undermines the health of all humans, as there is more disease in the overall population, and would be the cause for many deaths, decreasing the overall life expectancy.

Environmental Effects:

Health-Related Effects

Economic Effects

This would also effect the economy, since with more disease it would require more resources and effort to provide cures to those diseases. There will be more strain on the government to fund cures to those diseases, caused by rotting meat, and will put individuals, and the government indebt.