Presence of carrion-eating birds worries Warner farmer
by Tom Chillemi –
Black vultures are migratory birds that provide a necessary role by eating wild animals that have died. However, they are known to kill animals.
Black vultures hunt as a team, explained farmer Ellis Walton of Warner, who lost six cows and 13 calves to vulture kills in 2017. They walk in circles around their victim and slowly move in to strike with their sharp beaks, at the eyes, and at the same time inject their toxic stomach contents into the wound. The toxins send the victim into septic shock, said Walton, this week.
“They’ll go after anything that’s laying down,” said Walton. “Once they pluck the eye, within a few hours the animal dies.”
Defense
The Urbanna Town Council contracted with a team of licensed specialists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that used a type of firework, similar to a bottle rocket, to scare away the birds, which are a federally protected species.
Also a dead vulture was hung in their roosting areas to scare them off. It was a temporary solution, as they have returned to areas where food can be found.
Walton said he hung a dead vulture from a tree and it kept vultures away for two years. But they came back.
Vultures have also been known to pull off roof shingles…
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