It's A Mystery: Dozens of Dead Vultures Discovered Surrounding North Carolina Water Tower

(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

It's eerily reminiscent of a scene from my most hated movie of all time "The Birds". The Alfred Hitchcock film quite literally scarred me for life as an eight-year-old. This one has a little more of a mystery component to it. Wildlife experts were left perplexed after a pile of 40 to 50 dead vultures was found surrounding a water tower in Fuquay-Varina, a town in North Carolina near Raleigh. This is according to a report from Raleigh news station WRAL. Almost all of the deceased birds were located at the water tower within a radius of 100 yards. Normally it's the vultures preying on dead animal carcasses that you see.

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The tower is actually equipped with decoy vultures intended to discourage the birds from taking up residence there. WRAL describes the scene as looking like the carcasses "dropped right out of the sky". The news agency reports that Paul MacKinnon, an employee with the American Wildlife Refuge, believes the birds appear to have been poisoned. Others suspect that the dead vultures found surrounding the North Carolina water tower could be victims of the Avian Flu which I on reported yesterday.

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If the bird flu is to blame, the question remains as to why just the Vultures would be infected, and why they all collapsed in the same area. North Carolina law prohibits poisoning or killing vultures.

Source WRAL

List: 15 Places To Visit Animals In The Charlotte North Carolina Area

An interesting fact that you may not know is that Charlotte is actually the largest city in the country that doesn't have a zoo. And there is very little chance we will ever get a true one. But don't let that get you down, there are plenty of places you can visit with all types of animals in the Charlotte area. The biggest reason we will most likely never get a true zoo is that we are just 1.5 hours from both the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro and Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia.

Both of those zoos make our list and while both are large zoos, they offer different animals. For instance, you can see polar bears in North Carolina and Koalas in South Carolina. Is marine life more of your interest? Don't worry we've got a couple of options for you as well. Other animals include bison, alpacas, farm animals, all sorts of birds, goats are more.

All of the places on this list are a short drive from Charlotte. Most are very affordable to visit so a great family trip as the weather gets warmer. I love animals but I'm not a huge fan of encountering them unexpectedly, so this type of thing is right up my alley. I can't wait to add several of these to my summer bucket list. Where is your favorite place to visit animals in the Charlotte area? Let us know on social media!

North Carolina Zoo

Location: Asheboro, NC

Ticket Prices: Adults $15, Senior $13, Child $11

Animals: Lions, elephants, polar bears, giraffes, black bears, and more1

It’s A Mystery: Dozens of Dead Vultures Discovered Surrounding North Carolina Water Tower

It’s eerily reminiscent of a scene from my most hated movie of all time “The Birds”. The Alfred Hitchcock film quite literally scarred me for life as an eight-year-old. This…

Melanie Day

List: 15 Places To Visit Animals In The Charlotte North Carolina Area

North Carolina Zoo

Discovery Place

Cotton Bean Farms

Carolina Raptor Center

Good Karma Ranch

Tiger World

Sealife Aquarium

Dallas Lavender Lane

Zootastic Park

Tatanka Bison Ranch

Riverbanks Zoo

Darby Acres Farm

Sweetwater Farms

Lazy 5 Ranch

The Farm at The Schiele Museum

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