vulture

17 Stories

Dallas Zoo 'Heartbroken' Over Latest Suspicious Incident

Endangered vulture found dead just days after enclosures slashed around 2 other habitats

(Newser) - Police and Dallas Zoo officials haven't yet solved the mystery of who cut through the fencing of a clouded leopard enclosure, as well as the fencing around a monkey habitat. Now, a more tragic and equally suspicious development: A rare, endangered bird of prey has died, in what the...

In Indiana, Black Vultures 'Pick the Calf's Nose Off'

Indiana Farm Bureau making it easier for livestock farmers to secure permits to kill them

(Newser) - "Once they get a hold of them, they pick the calf's nose off, pick around his mouth, face, and navel. So then the calf can't make it very long after that." It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but John Hardin says it's...

Neighborhood Overrun by Puking, Pooping Vultures

Thanks to one neighbor who apparently won't stop feeding them

(Newser) - A New York couple's luxurious vacation house in Florida has been taken over by dozens of black vultures that are vomiting and defecating everywhere. The Palm Beach Post reports the Casimano family can't even visit the $702,000 home they purchased earlier this year in the Ibis Golf...

Protected Birds Are Eating Cows Alive
Protected Birds Are
Eating Cows Alive
Jun 27, 2019 10:05 AM CDT

Protected Birds Are Eating Cows Alive

Black vultures can peck a calf to death in minutes, starting at the eyes

(Newser) - Black vultures are eating livestock alive, and there's little farmers can do about it unless they secure a federal permit to kill the protected birds, whose numbers have ballooned over the last two decades. Kentucky herdsman Derek Lawson says he came upon six black vultures pecking a calf to...

Hailstorm Brings 'Massive Loss' for Colorado Zoo

Endangered vulture among 2 animals killed

(Newser) - Hail the size of golf balls and softballs pummeled a Colorado zoo on Monday, leaving 14 people injured and two animals dead, including one of roughly 20 endangered vultures known to be in the US. The 13-year-old female Cape vulture, dubbed Motswari, arrived at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado...

They Were Endangered, Now They're Dead

87 vultures succumb to poison in Mozambique

(Newser) - Conservationists say at least 87 critically endangered vultures have died after consuming poison planted in the carcass of a poached elephant in Mozambique, reports the AP . The South Africa-based Endangered Wildlife Trust says at least 80 white-backed vultures and seven hooded vultures were killed and more dead birds might be...

Only Chick These Gay Vultures Need Is One They Just Hatched

Zookeepers had found the egg on the floor

(Newser) - Two male griffon vultures in a long-standing relationship have successfully hatched an abandoned egg at an Amsterdam zoo, the AP reports. Artis zoo said in a statement Wednesday that keepers who found an egg on the floor of the vulture aviary initially put it in an incubator but later placed...

Villagers Release Vulture They Thought Was Israeli Spy

It was an honest mistake

(Newser) - A falsely accused Israeli spy has been returned home after being captured in Lebanon this week, and authorities are confident it will soon be soaring over Israel's countryside once again, Haaretz reports. Oh, it should be mentioned the suspected spy is a giant vulture, one that was released into...

Inside Vultures' Guts: Poison

 Inside Vultures' 
 Guts: Poison 
study says
Nov 27, 2014 8:50 AM CST

Inside Vultures' Guts: Poison

Study: Birds developed immunity to dangerous but helpful toxins

(Newser) - Vultures eat all kinds of nasty stuff that humans can't (and wouldn't if we could). But how do they survive living off the rotting flesh of roadkill? Researchers set out to answer that query by examining the guts of 24 turkey vultures and 26 black vultures trapped and...

Vultures Help Uncover Mass Grave in Mexico

31 bodies, some decapitated, found in Veracruz

(Newser) - Some 31 bodies have been found in a mass grave in Veracruz, Mexico, thanks in part to some hungry vultures. A local newspaper notes, per the AP , the grave was uncovered Monday on a ranch outside Tres Valles after marines spotted vultures on a dirt road. The BBC reports an...

Frozen Vultures Falling From Sky in South Dakota

2 turkey vultures crash onto one Sioux Falls home

(Newser) - It's not just snow falling in South Dakota this week: Turkey vultures have also been dropping from the sky. Apparently the freezing rain was so bad around Sioux Falls earlier this week that some of the birds iced over and fell onto the houses of local residents, reports the...

German Cops to Use Vultures to Find Corpses

Trio of vulture detectives given the names Sherlock, Miss Marple, Columbo

(Newser) - The world's first three police vultures are undergoing training in Germany. Police hope the bird detectives—named Sherlock, Miss Marple, and Columbo—will prove more effective than sniffer dogs at finding dead bodies because of their exceptional eyesight and sense of smell, along with their ability to search large...

Saudi Arabia Arrests Vulture ... as Israeli Spy

Because it was tagged by Israeli scientists

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia has captured a dangerous Mossad spy—and it has feathers. The cunning agent in question is a griffon vulture that alighted in Saudi territory with a transmitter strapped around its leg reading, “Tel Aviv University.” Its cover story: researchers at the school tagged it to study...

Fugitive Vulture Poses Threat to Planes

Escaped bird of prey in Scotland poses 'genuine' danger

(Newser) - Scottish pilots have been warned to be on the lookout for a massive vulture that escaped from a local aviary, the BBC reports. The Griffon Vulture, known as Gandalf, has a 10-foot wingspan and can reach altitudes of 37,000 feet. Handlers for the World of Wings center say Gandalf...

World Cup 'Vulture Smoking' Theatens Rare Birds

Gamblers smoke birds' brains; bird lovers sqawk

(Newser) - As the World Cup gets underway in South Africa, scientists are betting that one of the biggest losers in the soccer championship will be the endangered vulture. In South African traditional medicine called muti, vulture brains are dried, ground up, and smoked as cigarettes to give users what they believe...

Jack Nicholson Wouldn't Mind Being Eaten by Vultures

Actor, 72, mulls Native American 'sky burial'

(Newser) - At 72, Jack Nicholson has been thinking about death, or, more particularly, burial arrangements. One option he finds appealing, he tells German TV, is a Native American practice that would leave his body to the vultures. “I liked the nature of the Indians who haul their bodies up into...

EU Rules Starve Spanish Vultures

(Newser) - Madrid’s regional government hopes to relax EU laws that call for rotting livestock to be removed from fields—a precaution against mad cow disease—because the removal denies carrion-munching vultures a meal, the AP reports. “When a sheep or cow dies in the countryside,” said one ornithologist,...

17 Stories