American black vultures or urubu are large birds with a wingspan of up to one and a half meters and weighing up to 2 kg. They feed mainly on carrion, often living in garbage dumps in the area of slaughterhouses and landfills.
Sometimes these birds of prey can hunt chicks of ducks and small mammals. In farming areas, black vultures can attack weak and sick calves and lambs.
But in recent years, several states in the United States have seen frequent attacks by vultures on live prey that they have never hunted before. That is, on perfectly healthy animals. At the same time, the vultures did not care about first killing or mortally wounding the victim, and then eating it - they ate it alive, starting with pecking out the eyes.
Vulture attacks on livestock have become so frequent, according to a report in the Louisville Courier Journal recently, that it is already causing a large number of livestock losses. Farmers estimate the damage from each vulture at 300-500 thousand dollars.
This year, farmers have many times found half-eaten calves with their eyes pecked out, or even just a skin with a skeleton.
Scientists can only guess what caused this strange behavior of vultures. According to a Courier Journal researcher, global warming is to blame. Due to warm winters in recent decades, vultures began to shift northward and migrate less southward, discovering new habitats with more affordable prey.
Farmers in Kentucky are now suffering the most from the "come in large numbers". At the same time, farmers cannot do anything with black vultures, in many states they are protected as a migratory species and their shooting is prohibited.
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According to farmers, newborn calves and lambs, which are not yet dry after birth, are now the most favorite prey for vultures. Vultures smell them from afar, surround them and begin to peck at their eyes, tongue and stomach. They also attack domestic cats with great pleasure.