Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Vultures Killing Cattle~ Article

Pretty interesting.

This is in my area, so I'm paying close attention.

Sometimes we have LOTS of buzzards here. I've seen 250 or more feeding on a single dead hog. Guess they ran out of patience and started killing cattle and calves.

Part of the article...



https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2017/feb/19/vultures-kill-calves-during-birthing/

Are these the Turkey Vultures?

We have both down here.

Turkey vultures and black vultures.

Usually, I see more black ones.

Vultures were targets of opportunity until the Feds started protecting them.

The feds protect many, many things that they shouldn't.

I think the moral of this story is to not let them roost close to your place.

So, rockinbar, are both vultures killers?

Here, the turkey vultures seem to be scavengers.

I've personally not seen them kill cattle. I can see how they would during calving if they don't have enough to eat, and there are lots of vultures.

I have seen turkey vultures kill newborn lambs before.

I think the black vultures are more aggressive.

The problem here is not with the turkey buzzards, but the black vultures. They are much more aggressive than the turkey buzzard. I had them try to get on a baby calf last year, and shot a couple of them. The rest left and I didn't have any problems after that.

A Canadian friend told me he blames the loss of a white fluffy cat on a bald eagle.

I remember I had a great uncle who ranched up by Whitney Tx. Close to Brazos river. He had a "buzzard trap" up on one of them old baldy hills. He raised a lot of mohair goats. He'd trap a bunch of buzzards and get in trap and beat hell out of em all with a cedar fence stay.

Braver man than I!

That'd be worth the price of admission!

Yeah I had a cousin that would tell The absolute funniest story about his session of buzzard killin' with Uncle Ernest! LOL

I wonder how many fawn deer are killed by eagles/vultures have you guys ever seen that?

Fawns killed by eagles, yes.

Not found any evidence that vultures have killed one though. I'm sure they have.. just not run across it.

Thanks for the info, never thought about it before but it makes sense if they take out calves.

Must be killing new born calves. I don't see them able to kill a cow or a calf that has been around for a few days.

As if I don't have enough to worry about between mountain lions, Bobcats, coyotes, Ravens, feral dogs and now vultures

My neighbor lost several calves last year to the black vultures, aka "Mexican Vultures". She said that they will watch a cow calve and shortly after birth, fly down and peck it's eyes out. With no ability to see, they die pretty quickly since they can't find the cow.

I looked into getting a permit to shoot them for her but discovered that, while I could get the permit fairly easy, I could only use a shotgun and I had to turn every carcass over to a district station that was set up to take them. Apparently, not all APHIS stations are.

According to the website, the closest one to me is Albuquerque, NM.
So much for that idea as it's a 12 hour drive one way to Albuquerque.

Someone once told me about SSS, so I passed that along to her.

Ed

You can get a permit here through Farm Bureau. Not sure how it works as most farmers are like me....they use the SSS permit.

Ed too many letters described it perfectly. I know of at least one calf that was killed by vultures or Ravens that way. Nature can be very cruel.

Buzzards on my neighbors fence:

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If a guy moved about ten feet to the left he could them all with one shot of 3" 00.

Buzzards don't bother me it's the coyotes and bobcats that bother me. And actually the neighbor and his daughter brought out there slingshots and started hitting them.

If a vulture dies, whether by natural causes or otherwise, do other vultures eat the dead one? Or are there some things too repulsive for even a vulture to dine on?

Fresh newborns are the most vulnerable targets. Usually if a calf is born in the early night he will be up and going enough to be out of danger. The black headed smaller vulture is the culprit. The turkey buzzard not so much. In our area if action is not taken a herd will be constantly threatened by vultures. They are vicious and you will find 30 or 40 surrounding a cow with a new calf. The cow ends up trampling the calf while fighting buzzards. They can be convinced to stay away, although that lesson has to be reinforced from time to time. Next biggest problem is the neighborhood dogs wanting to pack up and resume their ancestral behavior. There is only one solution to that.

Know what you call more than 2 dogs together?? TARGET PRACTICE

Or one dog, when calving I don't give a fuuck.


Shoot the sonuvabitch.

Actually I'm a softy and HATE to shoot a dog but sometimes there is no other choice with a repeat offender.

Sam I was out of touch with the internet for a while, so what happened with the white dog? miles

Miles, he was recently adopted.


Hopefully it works out.

We never had black vultures until a few years ago.

Couple of years ago my wife and I found a young bull in the back of our place that had gotten through the fence, but was really sickly looking. A bunch of black buzzards had him surrounded, and seemed to be waiting for him to die - or maybe getting ready to help him die? I mentioned this to the biologist on a Wildlife Management Area not too far from us, and he said he saw several buzzards on a cow that had gotten weak and went down, and they were going for her eyes. Same summer a farmer in the next county - Matagorda - got arrested for shooting buzzards, paper said he claimed they were killing calves.

Mike

He wasn't doing it right.

There are lots of protected predators that will put you out of nearly any agriculture business. The trick is to know how and when. SSS only works if you follow the last "s"...

Had a cow to calve early yesterday morning. I had checked on her and the calf right before we left for church. Got home and had lunch, and I happened to walk outside and heard a cow bawling like crazy. Looked down toward the creek, and she was surrounded by vultures trying to get her afterbirth, which was still hanging out. She was fighting them. and one was also apparently trying to get on the calf. I grabbed a rifle, and by the time I got to gate, she was running away from them. One paid for his crime, the others stayed clear after that.

wow, i thought they don't kill/hunt but feed on dead animals, this is my first times hearing that they are killing turkey and calf.

When we're calving, there's not a vulture within 500 miles of here. March/April.

i wonder why the feds are protecting vultures,

They protect most all birds. Just a very few exceptions. English Sparrow and couple of others. The rest are mostly protected or regulated.