Why are vultures attracted to rubber on vehicles?

I was looking up some things for some of our recent questions when I saw this line in the safety guide for Everglades National Park,

Vultures are attracted to the rubber on vehicles and have been know to cause severe damage to windshields, sun roofs, and windshield wipers.

Here is an example caused by turkey vultures in central Ohio, USA, in summer 2016. They completely ripped up the gasket seal around the canvas top on this Jeep, as well as leaving behind plenty of other "evidence."

I have found guesses as to why they do this, from certain chemicals in the rubber to practicing tearing at dead meat, but no solid, conclusive studies seem to have been done on this that I could find.

Are there any conclusive results as to why vultures do this?

posted about 6 years ago

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Charlie Brumbaugh‭

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