vulture

Vulture
Griffon vulture or Eurasian Griffon, Gyps fulvus an Old World Vulture
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Families
Accipitridae (Aegypiinae) Cathartidae

Griffon Vulture soaring

Vulture's head, Mellat Park, Tehran

Some members of both the old and new world vultures have an unfeathered neck and head, shown as radiating heat in this thermographic image.

Vulture is the name given to two groups of convergently evolved scavenging birds, the New World Vultures including the well-known Californian and Andean Condors, and the Old World Vultures including the birds which are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains. New World Vultures are found in North and South America, Old World Vultures in Europe, Africa and Asia, meaning that between the two groups, Vultures are found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.

A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald head, devoid of normal feathers. This helps to keep the head clean when feeding. Research has shown that the bare skin may play an important role in thermoregulation.^[1]

A group of vultures is called a wake, committee, venue, kettle, or volt. The term kettle refers to vultures in flight, while committee, volt, and venue refer to vultures resting in trees. Wake is reserved for a group of vultures who are feeding.^[2][3] The word Geier (taken from the German language) does not have a precise meaning in ornithology, and it is occasionally used to refer to a vulture in English, as in some poetry.

Classification

Vultures are classified into two groups: Old World Vultures and New World Vultures. The similarities between the two different groups are due to convergent evolution.

Old World Vultures

The Old World Vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight.

There are 16 species:

• Cinereous Vulture, Aegypius monachus
• Lammergeier or Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus
• Palm-nut Vulture, Gypohierax angolensis
• Griffon Vulture, Gyps fulvus
• White-rumped Vulture, Gyps bengalensis
• Rüppell's Vulture, Gyps rueppelli
• Indian Vulture, Gyps indicus
• Slender-billed Vulture, Gyps tenuirostris
• Himalayan Vulture, Gyps himalayensis
• White-backed Vulture, Gyps africanus
• Cape Vulture, Gyps coprotheres
• Hooded Vulture, Necrosyrtes monachus
• Egyptian Vulture, Neophron percnopterus
• Red-headed Vulture, Sarcogyps calvus
• Lappet-faced Vulture, Torgos tracheliotus
• White-headed Vulture, Trigonoceps occipitalis

New World Vultures

The New World Vultures and condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas are not closely related to the similar Accipitridae, but belong in the family Cathartidae, which was once considered to be related to the storks. However, recent DNA evidence suggests that they should be included among the Accipitriformes, along with other birds of prey.^{[citation needed]} However, they are still not closely related to the other vultures, and their similarities are due to convergent evolution. Several species have a good sense of smell, unusual for raptors, and are able to smell the dead they focus upon from great heights, up to a mile away.

There are seven extant species:

• Black Vulture Coragyps atratus in South America and north to US
• Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura throughout the Americas to southern Canada
• Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes burrovianus in South America and north to Mexico
• Greater Yellow-headed Vulture Cathartes melambrotus in the Amazon Basin of tropical South America
• California Condor Gymnogyps californianus in California. Formerly widespread in the mountains of western North America.
• Andean Condor Vultur gryphus in the Andes
• King Vulture Sarcoramphus papa from Southern Mexico to northern Argentina

Feeding

Vulture, getting ready to strike.

A wake (group of feeding vultures) of White-backed Vultures eating the carcass of a Wildebeest.

Vultures seldom attack healthy animals, but may kill the wounded or sick. When a carcass has too thick a hide for its beak to open, it waits for a larger scavenger to eat first.^[4] Vast numbers have been seen upon battlefields. They gorge themselves when prey is abundant, until their crop bulges, and sit, sleepy or half torpid, to digest their food. They do not carry food to their young in their claws, but disgorge it from the crop. These birds are of great value as scavengers, especially in hot regions. Vulture stomach acid is exceptionally corrosive, allowing them to safely digest putrid carcasses infected with Botulinum toxin, hog cholera, and anthrax bacteria that would be lethal to other scavengers.^[5] New World vultures have the ability to use their corrosive vomit as a defensive projectile when threatened. New World vultures also urinate straight down their legs; the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses, and also acts as evaporative cooling.^[6]

Endangered

The vultures in south Asia, mainly in India and Nepal have almost gone extinct in just the last 10-15 years due to a drug called Diclofenac used as pain-killers in humans and animals ^[7] Government of India has taken very late cognizance of this fact and have banned the drug for animals. However, it may take decades for vultures to come back to their earlier population level. The same problem is also seen in Nepal where government has taken some late steps to conserve remaining vultures.

Notes

References

• Hilty, Birds of Venezuela, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vulture

• Vulture videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Ventana Wildlife Society
• Vulture observatory in Spain
• [http://vimeo.com/15318002 A Vulture Restaurant