Problem: How do you find a body in the woods?

Solution: Vultures. I was thinking about how investigators could use vultures to find murder victims as I spotted a bunch (a venue?) picking at a deer at the side of the road, but it looks as if a German Police force has already had the idea. They’re training the vultures to sniff out hidden bodies and return to them with the info, hopefully without snacking on them first. 

But what if it wasn’t necessary to train the birds? Current birdtrackers require recapture, but it can’t be that hard to come up with a way to track birds without requiring that. If areas with vulture populations could just tag their birds with devices whose locations could be picked up by radar, then recapture would be unnecessary. Investigators could look at where vultures have gathered when they are looking for a body in order to narrow down their search field. This hopefully, could lead to less expense for our police force and more closure for the families of victims. 

Non-recapture tracking devices could be used for other purposes. Endangered species could be tagged to support more environmentally-friendly zoning regulations. Police forces could finally replace the bulky and expensive GPS devices they use to track cars of suspected criminals. People with dementia could wear a wristband with the device so that their family members can locate them if they wander off.