American writer Mark Twain saw a vulture during a sea voyage in the late 19th century. It landed right on his ship. He said the bird was bald. It had red, featherless patches. Its head was shaped funny. He said the bird’s huge black eyes seemed to look out of skin that was on fire. Mr. Twain’s description is right! Vultures aren’t exactly cute and cuddly. They also spend most of their time eating gross, dead things. That might make you wonder: Is this creature’s endangerment really such bad news? When it comes to endangerment, people tend to have great sympathy for huggable animals like pandas. But few people worry about endangered animals such as the purple pig nosed frog, whose body looks like a blob and whose head comes to a point. Almost no one feels concern for the Pacific lamprey, which looks like a vacuum hose with teeth. And what about the Cuban solenondon? He has an ugly, rat-like body. His spit is full of venom. This creature moves so slowly that cats and dogs catch it and kill it. Does anyone feel sorry for him?

God didn’t make any of Earth’s creatures for no reason—not even the “ugly” ones! Just look at the vulture! The bald, red heads of vultures actually make the birds able to do their jobs. When they bend over dead creatures to eat, none of the food sticks to their heads. The birds can poke their bald heads deep into a dead animal. Feathers would just absorb the dead animal’s germs, and would be very hard to clean off.

Most birds lack a sense of smell. But vultures can smell dead creatures from more than a mile away. The vulture’s strong stomach acid makes it able to digest these creatures, germs and all. That protects other creatures from eating the food, which might poison them. It also stops germs from spreading to people. God has a reason for vultures. They are His cleanup crew!