Sept 5 is International Vulture Awareness Day

Nero, TRC's turkey vulture

Saturday, Sept 5, is International Vulture Awareness Day.  Vultures around the world play important roles in ecology.   Of the 23 vulture species, 14 are listed as threatened or endangered, and without proper conservation initiatives, their numbers will continue to decrease drastically.  Understanding the threats they face is the first step toward finding ways to help vultures.

TRC’s winged ambassador turkey vulture, Nero, celebrated his 40^th birthday last year.  He continues to be an important teacher on our staff for the more than 150,000 members of the public TRC reaches each year.  Dan Hnilicka, one of TRC’s interpretive naturalists, has been working together with Nero on some training.  It’s important to TRC to ensure that the birds have healthy bodies, and that their minds stay engaged.   Stay tuned - we’ll post some entries from Dan’s training journal very soon!