Vultures

Fast Facts

1. Vultures are incredibly diverse with over 20 species found across the world.
2. Vultures are found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
3. Vultures only lay one egg every year or so.
4. A vulture can eat up to 1 kilogram (about 2 pounds) in a single meal (that’s over 10% of their body weight).
5. The highest flying bird is the Ruppell’s vulture; one was injested by a jet at 37,000 feet.
6. Nearly all vultures in India have died due to eating corpses of animals recently treated with the drug diclofenac. In a butterfly effect, there is now a major rabies problem, with an annual cost of US$26 billion per year.
7. Vultures can’t sweat, so they pee on their legs to cool off.
8. A single living vulture is valued at $11,000 based on the ecosystem services they provide by ridding the environment of carcasses that would otherwise spread diseases and cause economic consequences.
9. The reason Kevin Carter waited 20 minutes before taking his controversial Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the starving Sudanese child is that he was waiting for the vulture to spread its wings. It didn’t in the end, so he took the photo and moved on.
10. In Asia, some vultures are almost extinct and have declined by 99% in just 15 years.
11. Vultures have huge ranges with a single individual using all of Kenya, northern Tanzania, and even going into Ethiopia and Sudan.
12. All vultures eat carrion or dead animals for at least part of their diet.
13. Vultures consume up to 70% of all the available meat in East Africa.
14. In ancient Egypt, vultures were used as a symbol of femininity.
15. Some cultures use vultures to dispose of human corpses, leaving bodies out on pillars to be fed upon by the vultures.
16. Vultures and Condors are not actually closely related, but superficially similar only due to convergent evolution.
17. In Germany, police have trained turkey vultures to help them finding missing people.
18. Because many species of vultures are social, vultures are highly effected by poisoning and environmental contaminants and over a hundred birds can be killed at just one poisoned carcass.
19. In many countries, people have set up vulture restaurants or feeding sites where carcasses can be left out for vultures. These restaurants help to ensure that vultures have enough food and can help them to avoid contaminated carcasses. In South Africa these are even visited by tourists who enjoy watching the vultures feed.
20. Vultures are the ultimate recyclers – able to strip a carcass in just a few hours, they keep our environment clean and disease free.
21. Turkey vultures have the best smell of nearly any animal but African vultures rely solely on eyesight to find carrion.
22. Egyptian vultures eat ostrich eggs and actually use rocks or sticks to crack their thick shells.
23. There are 23 vulture species in the world, and at least one type of vulture is found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. These are relatively adaptable birds found in a range of habitats, including suburbs, but even with that adaptability, 14 species are considered either threatened or endangered.
24. Vulture species are divided into New World (the Americas and Caribbean) and Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa) groups depending on their ranges. There are more vulture species in the Old World, and they are not closely related to New World vultures. The two groups are often considered together, however, because they fill a similar ecological niche. New World vultures may be more closely related to storks than to other raptors.
25. Unlike many raptors, vultures are relatively social and often feed, fly or roost in large flocks. A group of vultures is called a committee, venue or volt. In flight, a flock of vultures is a kettle, and when the birds are feeding together at a carcass, the group is called a wake.
26. Vultures are carnivorous and eat carrion almost exclusively. They prefer fresh meat but are able to consume carcasses that may have rotted so much that the meat can be toxic to other animals. This gives vultures a unique and important ecological role because they help prevent the spread of diseases from old, rotting corpses.
27. Vultures have excellent senses of sight and smell to help them locate food, and they can find a dead animal from a mile or more away. Because of this, vultures often have large territories and spend a lot of time soaring to locate their next meal. Vultures eat as much as they can at one meal. They never know when the next meal will come.
28. It is a myth that vultures circle dying animals waiting to feed. These birds are powerful fliers and soar on thermals while they look for food, but they cannot sense when an animal is dying. When they locate a carcass by smell, sight or the sound of other birds feeding, they approach it quickly before other predators find it.
29. Vultures have bare heads and often bare necks so that when they feed on rotting carcasses, bacteria and other parasites cannot burrow into their feathers to cause infections. This allows the birds to stay healthier while feeding on material that would easily infect other animals.
30. Vultures have relatively weak legs and feet with blunt talons, though they do have powerful bills. If a carcass is too stiff for them to rip open, they will wait for another predator to open the flesh before they feed. This is why vultures are often seen with other carrion-eating animals.
31. A vulture’s stomach acid is significantly stronger and more corrosive than that of other animals or birds. This allows these scavengers to feed on rotting carcasses that may be infected with dangerous bacteria, because the acid will kill that bacteria so it does not threaten the vulture.
32. While vultures eat mostly dead animals, they are capable of attacking and will often prey on extremely sick, wounded or infirm prey. This is more common if food has been scarce and there are no carcasses nearby.
33. It is a myth that vultures prey on healthy livestock, but they are still regularly persecuted by farmers and ranchers who believe the birds to be a threat to their animals. They may, however, prey on dead livestock and afterbirth or stillborn animals in breeding herds, though these incidents are rare.
34. Because vultures have weak feet and legs, they do not carry prey back to their chicks. Instead, they will gorge at a carcass and regurgitate food from their crop to feed their young.
35. Vultures urinate on their legs and feet to cool off on hot days, a process called urohydrosis. Their urine also helps kill any bacteria or parasites they’ve picked up from walking through carcasses or perching on dead animals.
36. The Andean condor, found in South America, has the largest wingspan of any vulture in the world, with a spread of 10-11 feet when the bird extends its wings.
37. The crow-sized hooded vulture is the smallest of these birds with a wingspan of only five feet. It is found sub-Saharan Africa.
38. When threatened, vultures vomit to lighten their body weight so they can escape more easily into flight. Vomiting also serves as a defense mechanism to deter predators that may be threatening the birds.
39. New World vultures lack a syrinx and are nearly silent. They do not have songs, and their typical vocalizations are limited to grunts, hisses, bill clacks and similar sounds that don't require complex vocal cords.
40. Vultures face many threats that are endangering their populations. Poisoning is the biggest threat to vultures, primarily from toxins or lead in the carcasses they eat. Other hazards include car collisions as they feed on road kill and electrocution from collisions with power lines.
41. Scientists have begun to study vultures’ unique senses and abilities and are considering using the birds to help find bodies from crimes. Studying how a vulture finds a body and how quickly it can consume the body can be useful for forensic analysis.
42. Vultures enjoy their own holiday, International Vulture Awareness Day, which is celebrated on the first Saturday of each September. Hundreds of zoos, aviaries, nature preserves and bird refuges worldwide participate each year with fun and informational activities about vultures to help everyone learn just how interesting and valuable these birds are.
43. Black Vultures are “family-oriented” birds – they feed their young for up to eight months after their young have fledged and often stay together in family groups.
44. Black Vultures have black plumage, bare black heads, and white patches under their primary feathers.
45. Mature Turkey Vultures have dark plumage and featherless red heads; the undersides of the flight feathers are paler. An immature Turkey Vulture’s head is dark gray.
46. When trying to identify a Black Vulture from a Turkey Vulture while on the wing (in flight), one may do so by looking at the underside of the bird’s wings. A Turkey Vulture’s wings will be largely silvery-white underneath, while the Black Vulture only has small patches of white at the tip.
47. Unlike most bird species, Turkey Vultures rely on their sense of smell to find prey. Black Vultures rely on sight.

Who’s who at the carcass?

East Africa has one of the most diverse scavenging communities of any ecosystem due to the high availability of carcasses or dead animals. Believe it or not, it is actually scavengers – not predators – that eat the majority of meat available in the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem (up to 70% of all carrion). By consuming dead animals, scavengers play a key role in the environment by preventing disease outbreaks and recycling nutrients. Below you will find descriptions of some of the important scavengers of East Africa.

Did you know?

Globally vultures are the most endangered group of birds. In Masai Mara, vultures have declined by almost 50% mainly due to poisoning (people put poison on carcasses to kill predators, who have eaten their livestock; unfortunately these poisoning events have killed many vultures). – Vultures have to travel huge distances to find food and can travel over 150 km (100 mi) in a day at speeds greater than 100 km/hr (60 mph). – When you get to a carcass with a lot of animals around, it is difficult to know who found it first. While you might think the vultures are stealing a tasty meal from the predators, it often works the other way around. Because of their high flight, eagles and vultures usually find carcasses first and are then followed in by mammalian scavengers. In fact, vultures get very little of their diet from predator kills and are mainly feeding off animals that have died of disease or hunger.

Question: How do vultures eat their prey?

Answer: Vultures have sharp hooked beaks and talons. They can also use tools. Vultures sometimes drop eggs to break them or hit them against rocks.

Question: Why are vultures a symbol of death?

Answer: Vultures often appear when an animal is dying or dead. Egyptians and Native Americans used vultures in burial ceremonies.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Aegypiinae
Scientific Name:	Aegypius Monachus
Type:	Bird
Diet:	Carnivore
Size (H):	64cm - 81cm (25in - 32in)
Wing Span:	130cm - 183cm (51in - 72in)
Weight:	0.85kg - 2.2kg (1.9lbs - 5lbs)
Top Speed:	48km/h (30mph)
Life Span:	20 - 30 years
Lifestyle:	Solitary
Conservation Status:	Endangered
Colour:	Black, White, Grey, Tan, Brown
Skin Type:	Feathers
Favourite Food:	Rats
Habitat:	Deserts, savannah and grassland near water
Average Clutch Size:	2
Main Prey:	Rats, Small and large animal carcasses
Predators:	Hawks, Snakes, Wild cats
Distinctive Features:	Large wings and sharp, curved beak

Turkey Vulture Facts

Anatomy

• Turkey vultures generally grow up to 25.2–31.9 in (64–81 cm) in length with the weight measuring up to 1.9–4.4 lb (0.85–2 kg).
• They are one of the largest birds of North America. The wingspan measures about 160–183 cm (63–72 in).
• Turkey vultures living in Florida are apt to be heavier than those found in Venezuela.
• Females are only slightly larger than the males but they both appear to be of the same size.
• The adult turkey vulture is covered with blackish down with brown underparts.
• Adult vultures are recognized by their red head and neck with no hair. They have a white beak. Young birds however show black head and beak.
• Turkey vultures have a greater wingspan in comparison to the black vultures.
• Unlike eagles, turkey vultures got talons on their toes that are not adapted to holding a prey. The naked legs of vultures may only allow the bird to roost at a high perch.
• While California condors lack sense of smell turkey vultures seem to rely on smelling sense and their remarkable eyesight.

Range & Habitat

• Turkey vultures are most likely to breed in the southern Canada, Mexico, to as far as Tierra del Fuego as well as Falkland and Caribbean Islands.
• They are thought to occupy a wide variety of habitats ranging from forests and deserts to the high plateaus of the Andes.
• Turkey vultures typically do not migrate but those living on the Andes are likely to go down to the lower habitats in winter. Similarly some of the subspecies that are found in the western United States will move to the south.
• It spends summer on the Long Island, Hudson Valley.
• They also make homes in scrublands, subtropical forests, foothills, open country, grasslands, and wetlands.

Behaviour

• Turkey vultures are outstanding fliers as they love to glide for miles without even a single flap. The speed at which they travel is 40 miles per hour (64 km/h).
• They will roost high up in the dead trees sometimes alone while mostly in groups. Turkey vultures may very well stay on perch all day long particularly in rain.
• When the day breaks, turkey vultures break away from their communal groups to forage alone.
• They are known to nest in caves but they never go inside except for mating.
• Predators of turkey vultures are great horned owls, golden eagles, bald eagles, and red-tailed hawks. Opossums, foxes and raccoons prey on turkey vulture’s eggs.
• While turkey vultures are excellent in the air, they have a rather clumsy walk on land. It seems hard for an adult vulture to fly from the land because the bird needs a great deal of energy to push it off the ground.
• They will make sounds such as hisses, whines and grunts.

Feeding Ecology & Diet

• Turkey vultures are dominant scavengers of North America as they primarily feed on animals dead or alive. They may like to eat carrion which is in the initial stages of decomposition.
• They have fairly small beak and as such they prefer carrion which is already tore apart by other animals. The vulture’s bill is not powerful enough to penetrate the hard skin of carrion. However the hook of the bill is sharp enough to remove the flesh off the carcass.
• While they rely on carcasses, turkey vultures also eat small mammals including mice. The turkey vulture’s diet also consists of seabirds and herons.
• With its bare head and neck, the turkey vulture may probe deep into the carcass.
• Turkey vultures also consume fruits, plant matter, coconut, pumpkin, and shoreline vegetation. They are often seen feeding on roadside kills mostly domestic dogs and cats. They have a varied as they also catch insects or fish in shallow water.
• Unlike most other vultures, turkey vultures get to the food by the strong sense of smell. Thanks to the olfactory organs that allows the bird to smell carrion below the forest canopy.

Reproductive Biology

• Turkey vultures typically nest on rocky cliffs but they also nest in bottomland hardwoods or forests. The nesting sites also include brush pile, rock crevice, cave, hollow tree, vine tangle, and in some old buildings.
• The eastern population seems to have shifted their nesting sites from cavities to thickets.
• In the southern United States, the breeding season occurs from May to April or June but the northern population breeds in August.
• They begin to breed 1 – 2 years age with the breeding interval of 1 year.
• The clutch size is 1 – 2 eggs but a female also lays up to 3 cream-colored eggs.
• Both parents share the incubation.
• Eggs hatch in about 4 – 6 weeks. Both parents feed the chicks for about 70 – 77 days.
• When threatened, chicks may defend by hissing.
• Young vultures fledge in about 63 – 70 days.