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Can we learn to love vultures?


Still Waters

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Vultures have suffered something of an image problem over the years. Eating the bodies of dead animals has never attracted us to them. But now a project - supported by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - is trying to turn round how we think about the birds, which are facing new threats, as the BBC's Kevin Bishop reports from Johannesburg.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...africa-24045768

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Apparently, Nepalese vulture population has declined dramatically in the last decade due to the use by veterinary of the drug Diclofenac used to treat cattle. The vultures ingest this drug from carcasses which poisons them. The Nepalese government has banned the use of this drug, but estimates suggest it'll take years for the vulture numbers to reach their earlier population levels. Meanwhile, problems have been encountered with the disposal of rotting animal carcasses in the vicinity of villages.

IMO, one of the world's handsomest raptors is the Bearded Vulture, or Lammergeyer.

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I love vultures. They serve a very important role in Nature's cycle of life. They are the clean up crew! :)

These are my two favourite vultures:

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ANNNNNNNNNND

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9728859419_34d4b5bd12.jpg

The second two are of a beautiful Lapet-faced vulture.

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ugh I have an aversion to these things, simply because a very hungry hostile vulture picked up my live cat, stripped his back leg of flesh put a hole on his ear an dropped him. he had to get the leg amputated. we have two kinds of vultures in southern Ohio, one type that only eats dead carcasses.but their is some other type here as well that will actually kill its prey. there have been reports from farmers that this aggressive type will watch a calf being born, swoop down spit some acidic substance in the animals eyes to disorient an confuse it and then will eat it alive. they only mess with smaller animals, I've been told they work together for something like a calf or fawn. kinda scary lol

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In the Ifa tradition of West Africa the vulture is a sacred bird. When you think about their role, cleaning up dead carcasses, disposing of rotting flesh, taking it into their bodies, then transforming it into something that fertilizes and enriches the soil so that new life can come into being, that's a beautiful thing. Symbolically, it's a sign that something has come to an end, or needs to come to an end, a cycle is ending, so that new life can come forth. Although I'll have to say one day I got to work and there were about 60 vultures sitting on the front lawn and on the building roof, it was kinda creepy. I don't know when they started gathering, they left around 10am, and we haven't seen them since. Images from the movie The Birds popped into everyone's heads!

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sorry guys, reread some stuff the aggressive ones are black vultures and they don't spit in the eyes, they pluck them out. the turkey vultures are the ones who aren't a problem here. sorry all

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A friend of mine was preparing to dispose of a dead skunk he'd found in his yard. All he did was turn his back on it for a minute while he went to fetch a spade so he could bury it, but as soon as he turned around he saw the skunk being carried off by a vulture. He said he'd never seen anything happen so quick! He's also had them at his garbage bags too in the past. We don't have vultures here, I remember seeing some in a zoo once.

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vultures-color_zpsf5f8e805.png

"Patience, my ass - I'm gonna kill something!"

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A friend of mine was preparing to dispose of a dead skunk he'd found in his yard. All he did was turn his back on it for a minute while he went to fetch a spade so he could bury it, but as soon as he turned around he saw the skunk being carried off by a vulture. He said he'd never seen anything happen so quick! He's also had them at his garbage bags too in the past. We don't have vultures here, I remember seeing some in a zoo once.

Where do you live Still Waters? According to the Wiki article on vultures, the only place they aren't found is Australia and Antarctica.

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sorry guys, reread some stuff the aggressive ones are black vultures and they don't spit in the eyes, they pluck them out. the turkey vultures are the ones who aren't a problem here. sorry all

It seems the vultures here in the US are related to birds of prey, including turkey vultures, which would go a long way to explaining aggressiveness. :)

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