Gary Forrest, age 10, of High Point, North Carolina, for his question:

Do we really need vultures?

Many people cannot abide vultures. They shudder to see grim dark buzzards wheeling around the sky, waiting for a poor parched donkey to die in the desert. Let's face it, this is a ghastly event that nobody wants to watch. On the other hand, let's consider the alternative. What would the world be like without the vultures and other so called scavengers that feed on carrion?

Imagine how many wild creatures die every day. Imagine what would happen if their bodies just stayed there on the ground. Soon the woods and meadows would be knee deep in animal corpses. They would smother the grasses and crowd out the next generation of young animals. This does not happen because nature operates a very efficient trash disposal system. Nature's garbage collectors are the vultures, the buzzards and other scavengers. They quickly dispose of dead meat by eating it. Do you think we should try to do without them?