Posted on 04/13/2008 9:15:17 AM PDT by devane617
COLLEGE STATION — Maybe if they were pretty, the ubiquitous buzzards that soar over Texas and elsewhere before landing to dine on some carcass wouldn't be viewed with such repugnance or considered a nuisance.
"Unquestionably, they're as ugly as sin," says Ian Tizard, a Texas A&M University professor of immunology and director of the school's Schubot Exotic Bird Center.
The birds range over much of the United States, and their March return to Hinckley, Ohio, for instance, is welcomed annually as a sure sign of spring.
But their proliferation as pests is making them unwelcome from high-rises in Florida to ranches in Texas, denying the misnamed buzzards — they're really vultures, and either turkey or black vultures — the respect as Mother Nature's vacuum cleaners that they might deserve.
Think roadkill.
"They're using up a useful food supply that would otherwise go to waste," said Tizard, who's studied birds for more than 40 years. "And you can make a case they tidy up the countryside too. We'd have a lot more smelly dead bodies around the place if they weren't there to clean it up."
Ranchers all around Texas increasingly are telling wildlife authorities that black vultures in particular, considered the more aggressive version of the bird and can reach 25 inches in length and have a wingspan of 5 feet, are responsible for killing young cows, sheep and goats.
"They're prospering," Tizard said. "Clearly if they're killing cows that otherwise would live, that indeed is a cause for some significant concern.
In Madisonville, about 100 miles north of Houston, city commissioners gave their blessing in January to shoot vultures blamed for destroying property as long as folks obtained the proper federal permits. Vultures, like virtually all birds, are federally protected.
Just last month, officials in Barstow, Fla., moved to include them in their Noxious Birds Ordinance of 2008, removing them from protection on a bird sanctuary island.
Randy Smith, a San Antonio-based biologist with the Texas Wildlife Services Program, said complaints about buzzards have soared.
"Ten years ago, it was a rarity, but it's pretty frequent nowadays," he said. "Usually we'll end up assisting the rancher. Nine times out of 10, we'll assist him getting a permit."
The permit allows the birds to be trapped or killed in addition to allow use of harassment to try to drive them away.
Harassment is what officials at the Halifax Health Medical Center outside Daytona Beach, Fla., have been using since early this year, apparently with some success. Metal spikes, sprinklers and a loud roof alarm are meant to discourage vultures from roosting.
It might not work forever.
"They're very smart," Smith said. "These vultures learn over time what you're doing doesn't hurt them."
That's when game officials recommend a shotgun might be more convincing.
In urban settings, the pesky birds are known to roost in high-rise buildings and peck at rubber seals around windows.
The turkey vulture's bald red head is the source of its name. Its cousin, the black vulture, has a gray head. They also differ in how they fly and hunt. The turkey vulture relies on the sense of smell, the black vulture sight, and frequently watches its turkey brethren find the food, then pushes its way into the roadside buffet.
Their featherless bald heads, though, are a remarkable evolutionary trait.
"You have a bare neck because you don't want your neck all matted with blood if you're sticking your head into a carcass," Tizard said. "The bare skins are an adaptation, but it sure makes for an ugly bird."
Poking around inside a dead animal for lunch also means they have a strong immune system. And add to that no real predators and an abundance of food, it's no wonder the population of one of the nation's more common birds has taken off.
Tizard said when he came to Texas A&M a quarter century ago, turkey vultures would have accounted for about 90 percent of the buzzard population, but the more aggressive black vultures have been moving steadily north and probably now make up about 70 percent.
He suggests it's because of the availability of more food.
"Imagine what Texas was like before cars," Tizard said. "There would have been dead critters around the place but never so obvious like the possums and skunks along the side of the road and roadkill deer. I strongly suspect there's a lot more food for them, and it's moving north too.
"And, on the whole, people don't bother them."
Both species are related to storks rather than buzzards, which are found in Africa. Buzzard is the old English name for hawks, which resemble vultures in flight.
"I think the early settlers saw a big black bird floating around in the sky and called them buzzards," he said.
But it's in the pasture where the serious damage happens.
Vultures "hang around when calves are being born on the pasture because there's a good meal there."
"My impression is that if the calf is weak, say it can't rise, and if mama is weak and she can't protect it, then they might not wait until it's dead," he said. "I've talked to a lot of ranchers and I do believe under some circumstances, black vultures are very aggressive and they're not going to wait until that animal is totally dead."
As far as the vultures being a threat to humans, he doesn't believe it's a problem.
"They're going to run away from people," he said. "My impression is they're going to get close to an animal that can't respond. A dying animal, they're waiting. As they say, the vultures are closing in. And that's exactly what happens."
My bird book says that vultures and birds of prey (Eagles, Hawks, etc) are members of the same family. I guess that means that the eagles and such are the ones without any patience!
Sounds more like an excuse to kill them. They are nature's clean-up crew. They have their place in the scheme of things
I don’t think vultures can digest fresh meat.
They have very little in the way of stomach/intestines to process fresh meat.
They have to wait until it is decomposing. Then they can digest it.
That’s why this article is way off.
They’re awesome animals. The first time I saw them with a roadkill deer I was like a kid on his first visit to the zoo.
We have mostly black vultures here, and I’m rather glad we have them to clean up the dead stuff. They use the updrafts that develop over the water and the cliff our road is on to float around and look for food-I have also seen them pounce on lizards and small snakes on the deck, carry them up onto the upstairs balcony and eat them.
I’ve never seen them catch a live mammal, but if my dog or one of my cats is sitting by the door the balcony, they will walk right up and peck at it or spread their wings, which makes the cats fall over themselves to get under the bed while the dog jumps at the door barking. They also perch on the peak of the roof and peck and claw the caulking from around the vent pipes and chimney flashings so that has to be redone every year. Other than that, they are not a bother.
Yes, as well as their “Trial Lawyers Association” card.”
In Miami, the crapital city of the Sheeples republic of FloriDUH, vultures roost on the court house roof.
The accepted consensus of legal opinion is that they are NOT reincarnated trial lawyers. They are reincarnated divorce lawyers.
In NJ the black vultures are relatively new - I first saw them about five years ago. They attack newborn calves, lambs, kids. I wonder if they get fawns but the fawns are darn nigh invisible. I’ve been within six feet of one before seeing it.
USDA report on the vultures here.
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/statereports/NJ/vulturenj.pdf
Sounds like the biggest problem is roosting - some people in the next town had about 50 on their roof every evening - can you imagine the damage from the guano and the reek of it?
A few, not many, have picked my pine trees, to judge from the white streaks on the rhodondrons. I try to discourage them when I see them sweeping in low - they’ll make twenty circles before landing. I’m a lousy rock thrower, so will invest in a beebee gun or slingshot if the numbers increase.
The Raptor Trust was feeding their vultures dead rats the same as they were feeding owls, hawks, eagles when I visited.
oh my. Memories.
Last year, for my big brother's 74th birthday, I gave him his Red Ryder BB gun that he had carved his initials in when a boy - (My aunt had it stored away in a closet and I got it at her passing) - and that gun STILL has all it's power!
We grew up on a farm in northern Maine - and instead of snowmen, I would make snow-horses with a little snow "Little Beaver" sitting on the back - and away I would "ride"
Hey! Where's your entrepreneurial spirit!
The Spanish made a fortune shipping guano from Central America back to Spain!
I grew up in the country without a lot of kids around, so I had my trusty BB gun and literally square miles of places to find something to shoot at. I would rig up my gun with a rope sling (tied to tape around the barrel so I could still see the front sight), stuff about half of the big 5000 size box of BB’s in my pouch with some snacks and water and would not be seen again until dark.
I was Soooo disappointed when I bought my son his first Red Ryder, the cocking handle is now cheap plastic that bends when you use it, and it just feels like a piece of crap compared to what you and I had when we were young.
Might have the same spring and power, but they cheapened it up so bad I was almost tempted to not give it to him and search for a used original one somewhere.
I swear I got so good at sighting that thing after about 30K BB’s I could hit d*mn near anything I aimed for. When I got a real gun I kept missing clays and game because I didn’t have to lead everything moving by 2-1/2’....
That's what I've come to realize. This Floridian has never seen so many turkey buzzards as are soaring over the Florida Keys. On occasion, a whale carcass has washed up on State Parks, so they're good to have around.
My theory (as a birdwatcher living in Florida since 1958) is that until the Interstate—with its increased speeds—there were very fewer buzzards than today.
I did an article search for Texas, because I was posting on the latest developments after the raid, and when I saw that headline, I thought it was another article about the polygamy cult.
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