Turkey Vulture vs Astro Turf

This is Nero, an education bird at the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. He is an adult turkey vulture and imprinted on humans.

He is normally housed outside, but the crew was making some adjustments to his housing and he was tethered indoors.

Turkey vultures have a natural impulse to rip open objects (just like they would on an animal carcass in the wild). When he is tethered, he is given objects to rip up to keep him from picking and ripping at his leash and jesses.

Nero is an old bird, he was hatched in 1974.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• birds
• turkey
• vulture
• raptor
• center
• phone
• book

[brentsapp25]

Aww... Turkey vultures are actually kinda cute up close

[MissPickletoes]

Nice! I saw a pair of them in my oak trees once...they flew in and landed. I thought they were eagles until I got my binoculars out and saw their red heads. Marvelous birds!!

[helix427]

Wow, those guys are tough, and seem to want to take apart whatever they can get their talons on.

[AlexKalicinski]

You Get em!

Get that TURF!

[Alphabex8]

@arachnophilegrrl more importantly, HOW does one tie up a turkey vulture safely?

[SG2jag]

No lie one time we were driving by my street and we saw a turkey vulture eating a dead cat

[arachnophilegrrl]

@tombstoner79 , also if you look at the video of him shredding a phonebook, you'll notice there are other birds tethered in this room. The LAST thing you want is a bunch of raptors loose together in the same room.

This is a typical set up for an educational demonstration. I used to travel with birds like this and talk to school kids. The little kestrel or burrowing owl would have been food if we didn't have them tethered.

[arachnophilegrrl]

@tombstoner79 - They are call jesses, it's a system that's been perfected by falconry to keep control of these raptors in certain situation but allows them to excersise their wings and NOT injure themselfves.

It's very humane and this is curiosity behaviour VERY typeical of these birds.

[ilovegum75]

lol! thats was funny!! :D turkey vultures are sooo CUTE!!

[tombstoner79]

So why is he tied up where he can't even walk?

[adamoba5]

saw this eating something on the side of the road the other day in Muskoka Ontario

MASSIVE!

[chickenpoodle009]

Ooh, he does not like that tether.