Starving Vultures Have No Fear...

nobody@vox.com(Ms Genevieve) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:09:27 -0400

Drought and scarcity of carcasses is forcing vultures in Spain to go after live animals. Farmers in southern Spain are alarmed over recent attacks on their livestock by starving vultures.

In the Mena Valley, an area in northern Burgos province that is home to many cattle ranches, about 100 vultures killed a cow and her newborn calf.

A rancher alerted police after seeing the birds swarm on a cow that had just given birth and kill both animals.

The phenemenon is on the rise in that valley and elsewhere in Burgos, said Jose Manuel de las Heras, president of the local chapter of a union called the Farmers and Ranchers Coordinator. Attacks on live animals have increased since a vulture feeding station set up for farmers to dump their animal carcasses was closed several months ago.

Traditionally, farmers and rural officials designate areas to dump the carcasses of farm animals like mules so vultures could feed on them.

But there are fewer and fewer of these places, in part because of mad cow disease: it is now illegal to dump cow or any other ruminant remains at such feeding troughs, de las Heras said.

The result is that vultures are so hungry they have even shed their wariness of humans to swoop down near farms and feast on live animals like cattle and pigs, de las Heras said.

"We have seen them land 100 meters from people. They are not afraid of anything."

Hear more about it here: http://www.theworld.org/wma.php?id=0327084

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Tenth Muse

Starving Vultures Have No Fear...