Effigy vultures deter damage to EPDM dam covering

ERJ staff report (BC)

Bull Shoals, Arkansas, USA – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is trying a new scare tactic for about 1,500 vultures that have taken up roost at Bull Shoals Dam, reports Arkansas Online.

Officials have begun hanging vulture "effigies" in hopes of discouraging the birds from getting too comfortable. The 10 effigies are made from corrugated plastic and resemble dead vultures.

Corps biologist Bruce Caldwell told The Baxter Bulletin that although vultures like to eat dead animals, they do not like to be around dead of their own kind.

Bull Shoals dam supervisor Steve Hernandez said that the vultures are primarily damaging the EPDM-surfaced roof of the dam, the texture of which they seem to enjoy.

The vultures do not actually eat the rubber, according to Hernandez, merely pecking up pieces and dropping them. More than $120,000 damage is reported to have been caused.

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