Turkey Vulture vs Phone Book

This is Nero, an education bird at the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. He is an adult turkey vulture and imprinted on humans. He is normally housed outside, but the crew was making some adjustments to his housing and he was tethered indoors. Turkey vultures have a natural impulse to rip open objects (just like they would on an animal carcass in the wild). When he is tethered, he is given objects to rip up to keep him from picking and ripping at his leash and jesses. Nero is an old bird, he was hatched in 1974.