Do buzzards eat dead skunks?

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JAG

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I drove over a dead skunk today and while intoxicated by the stench, I wondered if the stench is bad enough that buzzards won't even eat it. What do you think? I bet they do. It probably smells better than some of the rotting corpses they eat. Are any of you eyewitnesses to buzzards eating dead skunks?
 
http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/wi79g.htm


"Dead skunks are a favorite food of buzzards, possibly because of their strong odor. They will eat snakes when available. Sometimes one can see a buzzard flying through the air with a snake dangling in its grasp. Any dead animal is fair game to a buzzard, though no other animal will eat the dead carcass of a buzzard, not even another buzzard."
 
Mark, yes, Turkey Vultures.

I like them. They do provide a nice environmental service.

I drive to west Texas a lot for business and there are dozens of dead animals of all kinds...deer, skunks, opossums, racoons, coyotes, porcupines, etc. that are hit by cars. That's a lot of protein to be turned into maggots and flies.

The buzzards do great work in keeping some of the fly population down.
 
I don't think they eat lawyers.
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Al, that's not bad.

I think that nothing will eat a dead fox either. At least nothing in Oz will gnaw on a dead fox.
 
Buzzards will eat anything with entrails.
When I was a kid, my pal and I ran about 50 steel traps together.

Some species will chew their foot off before giving in to the trap. Especially skunks and foxes. But on occasion a skunk will give in, which is not a great thing for the young trapper. The buzzards will have the trap picked clean in just a day or so, and the rest will subside in about a month...if it rains a couple times at least.
Thing is, traps that have had skunk in them always prove to be the most productive later on. (shrug) A good side to all things, I s'pose.

There is a buzzard roost of about 60-70 birds not far from here. They claim a couple of HT towers. Nasty places, those.
Buzzard habits are not for the weak stomach to discuss.
 
Hmmm...
I haven't investigated to see if it's true, but I hear they don't have a "guano" hole, if you will.

I think it may be regurgitation, that is their preferred method of excreting.
 
That's a myth.THey do indeed have an ****--or a cloaca. They often urinate or defeccate on their legs to cool themselves.
They do regurgitate food if startled, as a defense mechanism.
 
So if buzzards don't eat dead buzzards is the planet eventually going to be blanketed with buzzard carcasses? :D Screw peak oil, cl***te ch***e, I'm worried about buzzard buildup.

Offtopic, but I was driving home one night and saw a dead skunk on the yellow line near my road. A week later I decide to be a good samaritan and snowblow out the fire hydrant at the corner. A snow plow had flung the frozen carcass at the hydrant where it lay waiting. Smelled something funny as I was blowing and saw fur coming out the chute. That was WIERD.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
I'm worried about buzzard buildup.

Me too. I'm also worried that buzzard poop or vomit will fall from the sky and land on me or my car. It would probably burn the paint off my car and burn my skin. Somebody sometime had to have had this happen to them!

So you snowblowed a dead skunk. That must have sucked for you but it is a funny story!
 
Interesting link about the differences between buzzards and vultures! I thought they were the same.

As homo habilus said "I stand erected!"
 
Originally Posted By: kargo27
Interesting link about the differences between buzzards and vultures! I thought they were the same.

As homo habilus said "I stand erected!"
homo habilis is "handy" man, you mean must homo erectus! (man with erect..... posture)
 
Originally Posted By: Aldaris
Originally Posted By: kargo27
Interesting link about the differences between buzzards and vultures! I thought they were the same.

As homo habilus said "I stand erected!"
homo habilis is "handy" man, you mean must homo erectus! (man with erect..... posture)


LOL, sorry, it's been 20 years since my anthropology classes. Well, I was trying to make a "stand erected/stand corrected" joke without incorporating "homo erectus" into it.

But it looks like I'll have to stand corrected again! I think I'll give up on the jokes today and just go take a nap.
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