Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023 - 10
CREATURE FEATURE
Roost
I
Coming
Home to
There's a reason-or two-vultures like
hanging out near your home.
By NANCY HENDERSON
'In another study,
we found about half of
the vultures had some
kind of plastic or trash
in their diet.'
10 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
t's no secret that humans often create problems for
wildlife with their relentless clearing, building and
other forms of " progress. " Not so for at least one
species, which has been increasing in numbers in
the Blue Ridge region and elsewhere since the late
1960s.
Researchers, of course, wanted to know why.
A study begun about 20 years ago was actually funded
by an unlikely source: the U.S. Air Force.
" Vultures are a problem for aircraft collisions because
they're a large, soaring bird, " says Jacob Hill, a postdoctoral
research associate at the University of Georgia's Savannah
River Ecology Lab and lead author of the report.
" So the Air Force was interested in the factors that contribute
to high vulture densities in places where people
live, in the context of understanding them to prevent
future collisions. "
In an effort to find out where vultures roost after
dark, Hill and his research team analyzed detailed data
gathered from 18 turkey and black vultures for nearly
8,000 nights on a military base in Beaufort, South Carolina.
The birds were outfitted with transmitters
that tracked their movements.
The decision to compare the two
types of vultures was anything but
random. Despite their scavenging
similarities, turkey vultures can
locate carcasses by smell, while
their black-headed cousins
can't. To compensate, black
vultures fly higher, following
their rivals, kicking
them off a carcass and
consuming it.
Ultimately, the UGA
researchers surmised
that although vul
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Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023
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Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023 - Cover3
Blue Ridge Country January/February 2023 - Cover4
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