The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
A Cautionary Tale
Turkey Vulture Photo courtesy Betsy Cross
Bob Currie and Betsy Cross
Here in Texas, we are familiar with mobs of black vultures and turkey vultures fighting over roadkill. Scientists and environmentalists are researching the important role these birds play in keeping nature cleaned up and in balance. Lucky for us, the two principal species in the United States and here in Texas are thriving, with an estimated 6.7 million turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) and 4.3 million black vultures (Coragyps atratus).
While neither of these scavenging birds of prey would win any beauty contests, there is another member of the New World vulture family—the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus)—which is the biggest of the bunch, if not the prettiest.
Unfortunately, the California condor only narrowly escaped extinction in the late 1960s, primarily due to lead poisoning from consuming bullets in the carcasses of the carrion it consumed. DDT is also believed to have played a role. Today, thanks to successful captive breeding programs, their numbers have risen to 537 in the wild and 203 in captivity. For now, there is hope.
A story of concern from across the globe.
In Africa and Asia, the threats to various vulture species are equally grim.
In the 1990s, India saw a 95% decline in its vulture population due to farmers administering anti-inflammatory drugs meant for humans to their livestock—drugs that cause kidney failure and death in vultures.
The disappearance of India’s vultures left the carcasses of livestock and other mammals to be scavenged by rats and feral dogs. Vultures are quicker and more efficient at stripping carcasses to the bone than rats or dogs. The longer dead animals are left to rot, the greater the chances that they will be washed into watersheds, accelerating the spread of diseases.
Those pathogens have led to an increase in human deaths from anthrax and rabies. One study suggests that from 2000 to 2005, half a million human deaths were attributed to the decline of Indian vulture populations. When vultures died off in India, people died too.
Beyond India, BirdLife International reports that six of the eleven vulture species in Africa are in serious decline. Poachers are poisoning vultures to prevent them from alerting game wardens to the location of big game animals killed illegally. A kettle of vultures circling in the sky is a sure sign they’ve found something that has stopped breathing below.
Farmers who see vultures feeding on dead livestock often kill the birds, believing they were responsible for the animals' deaths when, in fact, they were likely killed by big cats or other predators.
And back in the U.S.
As noted in the opening paragraph, two of the three vulture populations in the United States are thriving, thanks largely to the protection offered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
However, for black vultures, that protection is threatened by proposed legislation currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress.
A bill titled the Black Vulture Relief Act is aimed at relief from—not for—black vultures. It would allow farmers and ranchers to kill an unspecified number of black vultures believed to attack and kill newborn calves, sheep, goats, and other farm animals. For cattle ranchers, the economic loss due to predation is estimated at around $2,000 per calf.
As of this writing, the Black Vulture Relief Act is still in committee.
Black Vulture Photo courtesy Betsy Cross