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caracara eating newborn calves

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TWOROPES

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We have a pasture far enough away from the home place that it only gets checked once a week. I picked up some heavy bred cows at a fair price recently bred to a good black bull. They started calving last week. The caracara (mexican eagles) killed and ate the first two before they got up. I found another this morning alive with his eyes plucked out. At this rate I will lose my A-- on these cows. The feds claim this bird is endandered and you cant kill them. but i counted 37 of them picking one dead calf apart. I have run santa gertrudis cows in this pasture for years, and only lost 1 calf to these birds as the gerts will fight them off. These new cows are mostly english type and real gentle. The next time yall hear from me might be from club fed as I am stocking up on 22 shells.
 
Just SSS.

Good luck and quit advertizing what you might be doin. There are some rabid Fish and Fur people on here and they may put the word out that you are protecting your investment.

Good luck. Maybe you just need some big kitty cats to eat them nasty ol' birds. :wink:
 
We don't have any caracaras here, but the black buzzards (aka Mexican buzzards) we have look a lot like them. I've often wondered if they were related somehow because they've sure got the same tendencies.

The game wardens around here tell the same story about them being a protected species. I usually tell 'em that baby calves are the protected species around my place---buzzards and game wardens aren't on my list.

Jinglebob is right. The less said, the better. I feel your pain, though. If a cow gets a little bit paralyzed and lays there too long, you'll lose her, too. Better luck with calving out the rest of them.
 
Sounds like the buzzard problem we have around here

En mass-They can overwhelm even the best mommas

The only thing that I have seen work to keep them at bay around here is a real good guardian dog .

The population grew with all the chicken houses around here--people weren't too careful about disposal-- they got where they weren't afraid of anything.
Now there are regulations about disposal and they are hungry- and unafraid.

What I find odd is that I NEVER see a juvinile or nest ?????
 
Howdyjabo said:
What I find odd is that I NEVER see a juvinile or nest ?????
Click to expand...
I've got some pics. My wife and I found two young ones huddled up in an old house last year. There was a chunk of some kind of raw meat on the floor beside them. I suppose the mother brings them something to eat every once in a while.

They were ugly and sorta spooky looking. And made a loud hissing noise that would have been scary if my wife hadn't been there to protect me. :lol:

I'll try to get those pics into Photobucket and post them.
 
Texan said:
I'll try to get those pics into Photobucket and post them.
Click to expand...

http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=159686#159686
 
I have never heard of a caracara killing anything. I see them scavenge already dead things all the time, but not kill.

I would think you have lost your calves to something else and these guys are taking the fall because they are the last ones there.
 
I have never heard of a caracara killing anything. I see them scavenge already dead things all the time, but not kill.

I would think you have lost your calves to something else and these guys are taking the fall because they are the last ones there.
 
Sounds exactly like our problem with mexican buzzards. They will attack a healthy new born calf. Go for the eyes first then the rest. I have seen them in the trees waiting on a calf to be born. Takes a good cow to get up immediately and fight them off. I fear them far worse than coyotes.
I have heard they are protected. Sounds like a conflict, but our sheriff said we have the right to protect our livestock ( that was a general statement not specific to the buzzards). I hate those buzzards. When 10 or 15 flock around a cow with a new born it's a sad picture.
 
I am in South/Central Texas.
Just this month I have lost two newborn calves and a 2 year old having her first. The 2 year old cow was in the open clearing down next to a tank and the calf about four feet away. Right now there are around 100 of these black buzzards, turkey buzzards and Caracaras in the trees surrounding the dead cow and I have more cows calving. I am not joking when I say that there are 100, the ground under these trees and yupon around the dead cow are covered in white with droppings. I had no idea how many there really were until they all flew up out of the trees into the sky.
Last year a new calf had the lower 1/2 end of her tail picked to the bone. Luckily the lower end fell of or the mother bit it off and she is a fat one year old with a short tail now.
At first these Caracara things were new to us and last year a pair started roosting together in a pasture.
Thanks to this site I now know what they are. From Mexico I guess. Moving north because of the drought there the past couple of years.
They've got to go...
 
If I see a feathered sob around a new born calf it's up to no good and I send it along to the happy huntin grounds.
Good luck
 
Yes, I got two of them and only 97 more to go...There are always a few flying around but I've never seen anything like this. It's like that Alford Hitchcock movie "the birds".
 
Coyotes,eagles,ravens or whatever it might be,if they are harming my cattle,it's time to let the lead fly.Protected or not,i don't care.
 
3words said:
Coyotes,eagles,ravens or whatever it might be,if they are harming my cattle,it's time to let the lead fly.Protected or not,i don't care.
Click to expand...

I use Federal ammunition because if they are Federaly Protected it should'nt harm them useing Federal Ammo. :wink:
 
Denny said:
3words said:
Coyotes,eagles,ravens or whatever it might be,if they are harming my cattle,it's time to let the lead fly.Protected or not,i don't care.
Click to expand...

I use Federal ammunition because if they are Federaly Protected it should'nt harm them useing Federal Ammo. :wink:
Click to expand...
LOL!!! :lol:
 
A friend just last week had a cow with pink eye. He said that he almost had it cured and the buzzards attacked and killed her.
 
Lost another calf in October. There is no mistake it's the Caracara and the black buzzards. Coyotes would take the calves carcass away or at least tear it apart.. It was alive and well one day and picked clean the next. The Caracara fly much faster than any buzzard, almost like an hawk. They fly lower and faster while the buzzards go high when disturbed.
 
I've lost three cow calf pairs due to these predator birds since January.. When the cow is down, they peck out the rear of the cow and then go for the calf where they pluck out the tongue of the calf even before it's fully delivered. I had to pull a calf out of a cow that had been attacked and after removing the dead calf, we could see that the tongue was missing.
 

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