Why are people afraid of turkey vultures

Today in our local newspaper there was an article about the residence of a neighboring town being afraid of turkey vultures that moved into their area. There was talk of eradicating these misunderstood birds for fear of children being harmed and pets being taken from their owners by the vultures. When the Department of Environmental Protection were contacted, they tried to reassure residents that these birds were harmless. However, this did not eliminate the fear people carried with them. At work, co-workers were talking about carrying bats with them in case the birds attacked. Why are people so afraid of turkey vultures?

The reason is so simply...education or lack of. Turkey vultures are scavengers, hunting only for dead carcasses to feed upon. They can be found in open fields, river ways, and along highways. They also tend to roost in colonies. They do not attack anything live and they are a very docile animal. If people would take the time to research animals found to be living amongst them and area schools implement some form of natural history for our children, there wouldn't be such a panic when an animal moves into a neighborhood.

Like I said, vultures roost together and can be found in open spaces. As human populations increase, isn't it fair to say that open spaces decrease. Sooner or later animals including the turkey vulture will have no choice but to move next door. Instead of wasting time reporting on the unsubstantiated fear of a misunderstood animal, resources should go into educating about the nature and behavior of our wildlife, including scavengers like the turkey vulture.


This picture was taken in my back yard of a turkey vulture. It hung out in that tree for a few hours before taking off. It never bothered a living thing in our yard and believe me, there are a lot of living things scurrying around.