Turkey Vulture that Survived Poisoning Will Be Released Tuesday

A turkey vulture poisoned with pentobarbital, similar to the one shown here, will be released into the wild Tuesday. Photo courtesy of WildCare Animal Hospital.

By Bay City News Service

A turkey vulture that was found poisoned last month in Inverness has recovered after being treated at a San Rafael animal hospital and will be released back into the wild Tuesday afternoon.

The bird with a six-foot wingspan was found by a woman July 7 at Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Woodhaven Road, according to Alison Hermance, communications manager with the WildCare animal hospital. WildCare notified the Marin Humane Society, which delivered the bird to the hospital.

The turkey vulture was not directly poisoned, but apparently fed on the carcass of an improperly disposed of livestock animal that had been euthanized with pentobarbital in Marin County or southern Sonoma County, Hermance said.

Pentobarbital-poisoned birds appear to be dead, have no reflex response and breathing can rarely be detected.
Euthanized animals should either be cremated or buried 4 to 6 feet deep, Hermance said.

WildCare gave the bird fluids and oxygen and made it vomit, Hermance said.

Six turkey vultures were found poisoned with pentobarbital in San Rafael last year, and the one found in Inverness was in better shape than the previous six, Hermance said.

The source of the exposure to the drug is unknown. The previous six birds also recovered at WildCare, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife-approved wildlife rehabilitator, Hermance said.

The turkey vulture will be released around 2 p.m. Tuesday a few hundred feet up the Bolinas Ridge trailhead located in a pullout on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard just above the unincorporated Olema area of Marin County.

Turkey vultures are protected by the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the California Fish and Wildlife code.