News: Vultures & Condors

[bcbird]

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/01/27/Church-turns-to-effigy-to-scare-vultures/UPI-54021359320214/

Try this link.  

[Jazzerkins]

When you click on the link you get the message that the page you are looking for is no longer available.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Church turns to effigy to scare vultures
27 Jan 2013, UPI


JACKSONVILLE, N.C., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The vultures were circling a North Carolina church -- literally -- prompting members to commission a vulture effigy to scare the real birds away.

The strange tactic worked and the birds, which had been destroying the Bethlehem Baptist Church roof, now roost and eat elsewhere, The Daily News of Jacksonville, N.C. said Saturday.

"They were actually breaking pieces off the roof and eating it," church secretary Susie McBarn said. "That couldn't have been good for them."

The effigy, prepared by a taxidermist and installed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hangs upside down from the church's steeple


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/01/27/Church-turns-to-effigy-to-scare-vultures/UPI54021359320214

[The Peregrine Chick]

Vultures Dying at Alarming Rate

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2011)

Veterinary drug residue in cattle and livestock carcasses is killing South Asian vultures.

Vultures in South Asia were on the brink of extinction until Lindsay Oaks and Richard Watson, from The Peregrine Fund in the US, undertook observational and forensic studies to find out why the number of birds was falling so rapidly. They discovered the vultures were being poisoned by residues of an anti-inflammatory drug (diclofenac) used in cattle and other livestock, whose carcasses they feed on. The work is presented in a chapter of the new book, Wildlife Ecotoxicology -- Forensic Approaches, published by Springer.

According to the authors: "The story is far from over and the stakes are high. The failure to effectively control carcass contamination by diclofenac will likely lead to extinction of these magnificent birds which, through their scavenger role, have controlled the spread of infectious disease for millennia, as well as provided other important ecological services."

Oaks and Watson describe their scientific investigations, including their many challenges and setbacks, following the unprecedented decline in the population of two of the world's most abundant raptors -- the Oriental White-backed vulture and the Long-billed vulture -- in India in the 1990s, and neighboring Pakistan by the early 2000s. They describe how they were able to prove that the commonly used anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, fed to ailing cattle and other livestock, was being ingested by the wild birds feeding on the carcasses and causing visceral gout, a manifestation of renal failure.

The authors go on to discuss their efforts in 2004 to get the governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal to take note and act, faced with the irrefutable proof that diclofenac was responsible for the declining numbers of vultures at such a catastrophic rate. They demonstrate how solid science can facilitate a rapid regulatory response -- with India, Nepal and Pakistan all banning the manufacture of veterinary diclofenac in 2006.

In spite of the researchers' 10-year crusade and significant accomplishments, veterinary diclofenac continues to be used widely and illegally almost four years after the drug was banned, leaving the fate of wild Gyps vultures in doubt. The authors highlight a number of potential measures which could lead to a more effective implementation of the ban.

This forensic work and other scientific detective cases are featured in Wildlife Ecotoxicology -- Forensic Approaches. The editors present case-by-case examinations of the science, describing the challenges biologists personally face while doing their research and bringing these issues to the public and regulatory forum.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111117135719.htm

[Kinderchick]

... And spy birds are nothing new to the world of spooks and watchers. In 1940, British covert operatives were involved in a battle of the skies, by training peregrine falcons to take down Nazi-trained homing pigeons.[/i]

Ooooo! Scarey stuff! Better not consider putting a GPS on any of our Peregrine falcons!

[The Peregrine Chick]

Woman, bird arrested for allegedly being spies

In the world’s most unsettled region, it’s easy to get jumpy and see spies around every corner. Or nesting in every tree. Or biting tourists.

Iranian news agencies say a 55-year-old American woman has been detained on espionage allegations after she was found with "spying equipment." Reportedly, that may include a microphone or some other electrical device hidden in her teeth.

The woman, the fourth U.S. citizen to be arrested in Iran in the past two years, was picked up by customs officials in the border town of Nordouz, northwest of Tehran.

But the arrest hasn’t ruffled as many online feathers as the cloak-and-dagger apprehension by Saudi Arabia security agents claiming to have brought down a high-flying spy, code-named R65.  

The officials are accusing Israel of sending a specially trained vulture into their airspace near the city of Hayel.  The feathered operative apparently made locals nervous by looking down on them last week. When captured, the bird was found with a GPS transmitter and tag with the number R65 from Tel Aviv University stamped on it.  Suspecting a clever Zionist plot, officials locked the bird up.  Researchers in Israel say the bird is just a normal vulture, and part of an innocent long-term study.

But it’s not the first accusation of suspected animal agents being sent off to do dirty work on foreign soil. When tourists near the coastal resort of Sharm el Sheikh were attacked by a shark late last year, one Egyptian official reportedly suggested the biting menace might be an Israeli-trained provocateur. And spy birds are nothing new to the world of spooks and watchers. In 1940, British covert operatives were involved in a battle of the skies, by training peregrine falcons to take down Nazi-trained homing pigeons.