For the last few years, the City of Perry has had an issue with turkey vultures, but they’ve taken steps to driving them away.

City Administrator Sven Peterson says turkey vultures have had a tendency to roost on the water tower and in large trees. The City has attempted to deter them with spikes along the rails of the water tower, though Peterson says the birds have a knack for finding the open spots. What they’ve had more success with is hanging dead turkey vultures in the trees, with permission from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

“What we do is, we have a permit from the DNR to be able to harvest up to five turkey vultures to hang in trees. What that does is kind of deters them from roosting in those trees, and what we try and do is put them in enough trees that the turkey vultures just kind of leave town. We’ve kind of been chasing them around town for a couple years now, but when you hang one of the turkey vultures in a tree it definitely helps.”

Peterson adds, they don’t actively hunt the birds. What they do is use ones that have died of natural causes or sustained serious injuries from other sources. The City has already hung the first turkey vulture of the year, which was found seriously injured along the highway.