Farmers in the Aveyron, southern France, claim that livestock is being killed by griffon vultures. That’s nothing new, but they have now persuaded the government to allow firing blanks at them. The objective is to frighten the birds away, not to kill them; the species is strictly protected.
Why are the authorities allowing this? Griffon vultures are not predators, they are not designed for it. They are no more capable of picking up something with their claws than we are with our feet. Their beak is the wrong shape. They do not approach animals stealthily and then pounce as a predator would do; they merely observe and wait. All this is true, but…
Farmers are not reassured. When the farmer quoted in this article saw over 150 griffon vultures crowding around a cow giving birth he called it an attack.
“She tried to flee, she even broke through two barbed wire fences, but they trapped her in a corner and killed her.”
Griffon vultures are not designed for predation, but the kind of behaviour witnessed by this farmer is well documented (references below). It is not aberrant, just extremely rare. If a vulture sees an animal giving birth it will dive in to claim the placenta. If the youngster is stillborn, it will be eaten. And if the mother is not strong enough even to defend her offspring, she too may be harassed. And sometimes killed. Rare, but normal.
So, are the farmers satisfied with the new measures? No, they want something more radical. And, naturally, the French League for the Protection of Birds isn’t satisfied either.
So, what is the solution? Bringing the cows to the farm for the births? If this were to become standard practice, who should pay the extra costs?
References
Arthur, C P & Zenoni, V 2010 Les Dommages sur Bétail Domestique Attribués au Vautour Fauve. Parc national des Pyrénées (Tarbes).
Choisy, J-P 2014 ‘Le Vautour fauve Gyps fulvus et les dommages au bétail: analyse, objectifs, stratégie’, Courrier de l’Environnement de l’INRA 64, 105–18. hal.science/hal-01222607/file/Courrier64-Choisy-28-10-14.pdf. (Choisy is a member of the Vulture Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.)