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The scenes told in Indiana farmlands and elsewhere seem like something straight out of a horror novel where black vultures descend into the woods and pastures of the Midwest and beyond.
Farmers describe savage attacks on their animals: burials, big black birds with humpbacks feasting on newborn calves as they emerge from their mothers, and sometimes the mothers hunt themselves.
“They’ve gotten really aggressive over the last few years,” said John Hardin, a livestock breeder located in Scott County, Southern Indiana, about 20 miles north of Louisville, Ky., who usually sees eight to 10 birds on his farm. At least two of his calves were killed by vultures, maybe more. “They love the navel area and will take it to the bone and hide.”
Vultures are often called “nature’s garbage disposals” because their highly adapted digestive and immune systems allow them to eat dead and diseased carcasses with impunity. While littering is viewed as a critical ecosystem service, some experts say reports of black vultures preying on live animals are relatively unheard of, and some have expressed doubts that predation is actually taking place.
The situation in Indiana this summer has proven alarming enough that farmers are allowed to quickly obtain permission to “take” or kill up to three birds — received by the Indiana Farm Bureau from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. force in other states in the Midwest.
“These migratory birds cross the Ohio River,” said Greg Slipher, a livestock specialist at the Indiana Farm Bureau. “I got a warning from my colleague in Kentucky and he said, ‘They’re coming your way,’ and he was right. In the last three or four years, we have gone from a few reported cases to many.”
Not much is known about the bird and why their numbers are increasing in states where they weren’t seen a decade ago. They have traditionally been found in the southern United States and Central and South America, and it is not clear why they have extended their range significantly north and west. Some think that milder winters due to climate change may be a factor.
From 2007 to 2019, black vulture breeding populations increased by one percent to four percent annually across all species in the United States, with the exception of the Gulf Coast and small portions of southern Central Florida. analysis eBird data By the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
The extent of predation by black vultures is far from established as they move to new territories. One of the country’s leading ornithologists is highly skeptical and has expressed concern about permits to kill them. Black vultures are one of about 1100 species protected under the centuries-old international Migratory Bird Treaty Act; Harming them without their permission can result in hefty fines or even jail time.
“I’m going to take an extreme stand here and say they don’t kill healthy calves,” said John W. Fitzpatrick, recently retired director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York.
He ruled for seven years Archbold Biological Station In Central Florida, which includes a working cattle ranch with black vultures. “They are often seen around stillborn or dying calves and will jump on them quickly,” he said. However, “the idea that they are predators of animals is false,” he added.
“To me, it should be considered lore as it is not well documented,” he said. Vultures can sometimes attack a healthy calf, he said. However, “are we talking about something so pervasive and economically devastating that we need to start allowing a protected bird to be destroyed?”
Vultures are large birds that weigh about five pounds, topped with what appears to be a gray, hairless leather helmet. They have a wide wingspan of up to five feet, which provides loft when gliding in thermals and spot hunts. They are one of three species of vulture in the United States; the turkey vulture and the endangered California vulture are the other two.
Dr. “The black vulture is a wonderful bird,” Fitzpatrick said. “They are faithfully mated, have surprising and complex social behaviors, and are super-intelligent. They protect the nest tightly. The eggs hatch into these fluffy white chicks and for a month or six weeks you can always tell there is a nest nearby because one of them has been sitting in the same spot every day for weeks.”
Dr. Grant Burcham is a veterinary diagnostician who runs a research cattle ranch at the Heeke Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue University.
Dr. Burcham said he took a calf killed by vultures and euthanized two other calves that had been attacked. Autopsies showed that the calves were not healthy – two had “bubbles”, intestinal disease and a third a broken leg – and may have been picked by vultures who sensed their vulnerability. “The animals were dehydrated and visibly slower, and that’s why they were probably targeted.”
A final paper He concluded that predation by scavenger birds, including the black vulture, in Argentina, while perceived to be frequent, was not at all common.
Patrick Zollner, professor of ecology at Purdue University, agreed that experimental evidence of predation is lacking. “What is not fully known in Indiana and most places is how often this happens,” he wrote in an email. “Tackling this gap is one of the goals of our ongoing research.”
At Purdue, Dr. Marian Wahl, a doctoral student who studies birds with Zollner in Indiana, said she believes black vultures in the United States and Indiana rose to several million from a few decades ago. 17,000 now.
While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may issue special permits to kill birds that cause damage, the process of obtaining them can be long and laborious, costing up to $100 each. The relatively new program in Indiana and elsewhere allows state farm offices to take multiple permits and issue sub-permits, which experts say is more sensitive.
Mr. Slipher said that since the program went into effect in early August, it has received 45 requests for “take” permissions, and authorized 22 of them.
While the permits allow anyone to shoot three birds, Mr. Slipher says it’s a better strategy.
“I recommend, don’t go there and shoot all three on the first day,” he said. “One of the things we know about this particular species is that they react greatly to their peers. We encourage our breeders to shoot the first bird and hang that bird on the puppet.”
It’s an approach that helps some of the most affected producers in Kentucky. Real and fake hanging statues are widely used to disperse birds, and although there are studies showing that they work, their effectiveness is not fully understood.
“If you use a statue to scatter a roost, does it keep them away from the animals, or do they just move to a roost down the road and keep coming back to the same farm?” Miss Wahl asked.
Joe Cain of the Kentucky Farm Bureau said black vultures began appearing in his home state in the early 2000s, and it wasn’t until 2015 that Kentucky introduced the newly established permit system in Indiana.
“We only hit hotspots,” said Mr. Cain. “The ones with the most serious problems are those who call us. There are many more out there that are being plundered, but at least they know there is a program out there to help them protect their animals.”
Officials said the permits did not significantly reduce the number of cattle killed. They added that about 500 to 600 cows are killed annually in Kentucky, with more lambs, baby goats, free-range chickens and turkeys being slaughtered as vulture populations increase.
Other tactics include making loud noises with devices like propane cannons, igniting pyrotechnics, watering the birds with high-pressure hoses, and using guard dogs. Cutting these trees can also provide relief, as vultures often perch on large dead trees to survey the terrain and forage for prey. The effectiveness of these measures has been proven by Ms. Wahl and Dr. It is part of the work undertaken by Zollner.
Mr. Cain wants federal law changed to help farmers. “We asked Congress for a safe harbor provision,” he said. “If they see that there is looting, it is unreasonable for them to say, ‘I will go home and apply for a permit, wait two days and take the leave’. When they see that happening, then it makes a lot more sense to protect your animals.”
Farmers say a vulture attacking live prey is a dire scenario. “Birds reset at birth – essentially at their most vulnerable moment,” Mr. Slipher said. “Literally when the calf is about to emerge from its mother, we get black vultures attacking the calf and attacking the mother.”
The bird usually sticks out the eyes, nose, mouth and belly. Farmers say each animal that dies is worth $1,000.
They’re a nuisance for other reasons, too: They tear up asphalt tiles in homes, remove windshield wipers and rubber seals around vehicle sunroofs, and tear up seat covers on farm equipment and boats.
Stomach acids are almost as corrosive as battery acid and can eat their feces, urine and vomit on roofs, towers and other places where they roost.
But vultures are also a proven and critical part of the ecosystem. For example, great vulture deaths have occurred in India due to the widespread use of a poisonous veterinary drug for birds. This has resulted in an increase in rabies cases. vultures used to scavenge dead cattle and other waste; when they disappeared, dogs began to feed on waste, and as their numbers increased, so did rabies cases.
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