Buzzard attack account, no lie!

[Lightwaves@aol.com]

It has been implied that my statements concerning hunting buzzards are
incorrect, or mistaken. I swaer by all I hold sacred that the following is
true and accurate.  

In late May 1971, while stripping old roofing, I witnessed the following;

At about 1:00pm on a very warm N. Arkansas day I watched 6(six) Buzzards take
turns chasing a cotton-tailed rabbit about a freshly cut fescue(hay) field. I
do not know how long the hunt had been in progress, but when I noticed what
was happening the rabbit was running well indeed.

All of the buzzards stayed in the air, but one at a time would swoop down to
within a few feet of  the rabbit, always turning the victim into the the
center of the field. As soon as the chasing buzzard would lose speed, and
start flapping, another would take up the position of chaser. The buzzard
just replaced would climb to a gliding altitude, and take the top of the
stack.(Much like holding pattern for passenger jets.) This went on for about
fifteen minutes, and at that point the hunt changed dramaticly.

The rabbit, now very tired, and frightened, started trying to get to the
fence-line. He would zig and zag, rather than run the long circle, trying to
evade the persuing buzzard. At that point most of the big birds closed on the
prey, and one buzzard struck the rabbit with it's feet. This was not a fatal
blow, but it slowed the rabbit a great deal. Much as sharks in a feeding
frenzy, the buzzards started diving at the rabbit in sharp moves that
eventually led to the rabbits back being broken, I assume. It started
screamming, and crawling with it's front feet, dragging it's hind feet. At
that point the buzzards all pounced on the rabbit, and tore it to bits.

This may have been a training exercise for young, or a chance to take easy
meat. I have no insight as to buzzard motives. What I do know is they hunted
together, and ate together. The rabbit never had a chance, and made a fatal
mistake in entering that open field.

I am sure that some dinosaurs hunted in packs, probably the smaller ones, if
for no other reason than to protect themselves and their kills from larger
carnivores. Maybe they hunted cooperatively to bring down bigger or faster
prey, but it's a tactic that exists today, and surely worked way back then.