MACABRE MYSTERIES: Black Vultures In Indiana Are Killing Livestock Daily!

Vultures aren’t historically loved like Eagles or Sparrows. Vultures eat dead meat and decaying carcasses…or so one would assume. The farmers in the state of Indiana lately might have a few things to say about these winged angels of death.

Farmer James Hardin gets visited by Black Vultures on his farm every day and it’s getting to be a big problem.

“The black vultures, now that's a very, very aggressive bird,” Hardin said. “They’re basically waiting for the cows and calves to die or trying to kill them.”

Black vultures survive, like most vultures, by eating carrion, or the remains of dead animals. That can serve as an integral part of the ecosystem: eating diseased remains that could carry sickness and spread to other animals. But unlike Indiana’s turkey vultures, black vultures also go for living animals: calves, piglets, lambs and other small livestock are their preferred targets.

Seemingly every day when Hardin walks out his door, he sees them. They often are perched on the roof ridge of his neighbor’s barn or settled on a nearby fence post — watching, waiting. 

Black Vultures pictured waiting for their next meal.

It may sound ominous, Hardin said, and in a way, it is. 

The livestock farmer said he’s lost at least two but possibly up to four animals in the last few years because of black vultures.

“When you’re in the animal husbandry business, one of the worst things you want is for an animal to die, especially the way vultures do it,” Hardin said. “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.” 

Hardin is among a growing list of farmers who are dealing with what many describe as a reign of terror brought on by black vultures.

No one knows for sure what has caused the uptick in Vulture related livestock kills as of late but one thing is for sure, the birds are protected by federal laws so they can’t be shot or harmed, even by farmers loosing their stock.

“When the initial volley of calls came in from those producers, we tried to figure out how we could help them,” said Greg Slipher, Indiana Farm Bureau’s livestock specialist.

Vultures kill dozens of animals

Slipher first heard of black vultures about five years ago when he got a call from his colleagues in Kentucky warning him: They’re coming. Seemingly overnight, black vultures started popping up everywhere on southern Indiana’s landscape, he said. 

“I got a heads up that these birds were coming my way,” he said, “and by golly they were right.”

Black vultures have continued to expand north in recent decades across the Ohio River from their original territory in southern states. In the 1990s, there were so few black vultures in Indiana that groups dedicated to protecting migratory birds didn’t even have a clear estimate. Now, a recent study based on calculations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates upward of 17,000 black vultures in the state. 

A multi-year study of black vultures being led by Purdue University is currently underway. One of its goals is to better understand how many farmers have been affected, how many animals have been lost and the resulting financial costs. 

A survey of only about 20 livestock producers found they lost 25 animals to black vultures in the last three years, including both adult cows and calves. A single cow can be worth more than $1,000, and for small producers, the loss of just one cow can be a major disruption to their operation. 

“The vultures are here to stay, and we are going to have to find ways that we can all live together,” he said. “If that means some birds have to be lethally removed, hopefully we’re minimizing the number of birds we have to treat that way and the number of cattle lost.”