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Re: Black Vultures & Lambs



ANNE . . .

Although Black Vultures are primarily scavengers, they are more 
aggressive than Turkey Vultures and indeed are known to hunt herons 
and opossums and even kill newborn livestock.

In the case of your lambs, it is entirely possible they were 
stillborn and the Black Vultures merely scavenged. Regardless, many 
sheep farmers maintain a daylight vigil during lambing time to 
prevent any chance of predation.

It's worth mentioning that Black Vultures are protected by state and 
federal law, and that their competition with ranchers causes on-going 
conflict in some locales. It may be that someone has come up with a 
good scare-vulture technique, such as the pump-driven balloon that 
resembles a man and automatically inflates and deflates at irregular 
intervals during the day.

I hope your sheep and vultures can coexist and that you're successful 
with all the lambs to come.

Cheers,

BILL

-----------

>As some of you know, Blayne and I raise sheep.  We are in the middle of
>lambing.  When I came home from work this afternoon I saw a ewe with one
>lamb on its feet. She was  licking at another lamb on the ground and
>there was a large circle of black vultures around the ewe and her
>lambs.  I hurried out to the pasture and chased the black vultures
>away.  There were at least 12 of them.  The lamb on the ground was dead.
>It was clear that the vultures had just begun to eat it.  I put the ewe
>& live lamb in the barn.  Five minutes later I went out to clear away
>the carcass of the dead lamb.  There were no vultures in sight any more.
>
>Early Monday morning I found the carcasses of two lambs with some black
>feathers nearby.
>
>My question is:  Did the black vultures kill the lambs that they ate?
>Or did they simply take advantage of a newly dead animal?
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>Anne Olsen
>Monroe, NC
>
>--
>Anne Olsen
>Wingate University
>Wingate, NC 28174
>aolsen@wingate.edu
>

-- 

BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845

Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net) at 
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"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."					BHjr.