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The Peregrine Chick:
Why One Virginia Town Wants to Kill a Vulture and Hang its Corpse
Judy Molland / Care2 / 2 Jan 2014
Seen on the wing, the turkey vulture is an awe-inspiring and graceful bird. Designed for soaring flight, with a nearly six-foot wing span and a light body weight, turkey vultures are able to buoyantly ride rising columns of warm air to heights of almost 5,000 feet and to travel up to 40 miles per hour with almost no flapping of the wings.
Wow!
Seen up close, however, this creature is not so beautiful: an unfeathered and red-skinned head, long bare legs and weak talons, with the hind toe small and dysfunctional. Hence, they seek out carrion, since they don’t have the talons to kill their own prey.
In December, the town of Vinton, Va., decided that they had had enough of the migrating raptors.
As The Roanoke Times reported: They materialized almost overnight, dozens of them, swooping in wraithlike and ready to roost. Vinton Town Manager Chris Lawrence had seen it before — beady-eyed buzzards loitering in his neighborhoods, an annual migratory menace. It wouldn’t be so bad if their acidic droppings didn’t remove paint from cars, or if they abstained from pecking at roofs. But they do, close to 100 of them.
Even though Lawrence admitted that the town was partially responsible for the vultures choosing this neighborhood, as town officials hadn’t covered buried roadkill well enough, Vinton police officers fired booming guns into the air to drive the birds away, and most left.
Vinton Plans to Kill One Vulture and Hang the Remains
Lawrence is planning more drastic measures for 2014.
Turkey vultures are classified as migratory birds, which means that they are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. However, the town could apply for a federal permit to kill one vulture. The remains would be hung near the vultures’ roosting site, and the vultures would disperse because they don’t like to be around their own dead.
That’s right: just like that infamous spot at London Bridge in England, where for over 300 years in medieval times alleged traitors’ heads were put on spikes as a warning to anyone thinking of challenging the Royal Crown, a dead vulture would be hung to discourage other vultures from even thinking of coming close to Vinton ...
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/is-killing-a-vulture-and-hanging-its-corpse-the-right-thing-to-do.html
The Peregrine Chick:
Sad news ...
Zion National Park's Condor No. 299 Is No More
NPT Staff / National Parks Traveller / 2 Jan 2014
Condor No. 299, arguably the most-viewed condor in Zion National Park, has died. The bird's body was found in a remote canyon southeast of the park. The 11-year-old male was found after a search that involved a telemetry flight via airplane. It also took biologist Eddie Feltes a hike of several miles and a 300-foot rappel to recover the carcass. Park officials hope a laboratory necropsy will shed light on what killed the condor.
source: http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2014/01/zion-national-parks-condor-no-299-no-more24462
Kinderchick:
--- Quote from: bcbird on January 28, 2013, 11:53 ---http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/01/27/Church-turns-to-effigy-to-scare-vultures/UPI-54021359320214/
Try this link.
--- End quote ---
Yes! Thanks, bcbird. I wasn't able to open the 1st link but am able to open this one. :-*
The Peregrine Chick:
thanks bcbird! :)
Jazzerkins:
Yes, the second link worked. Thank you. :)
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