Similarly, in Central Africa there has also been efforts to conserve the remaining vultures and bring their population numbers back up. Birds from European populations fly to winter for winter in Africa. [6] Vast numbers have been seen upon battlefields. Vultures may remain aloft for hours, soaring gracefully on long, broad wings.
[17], A recent study in 2016, reported that "of the 22 vulture species, nine are critically endangered, three are endangered, four are near threatened, and six are least concern". Science Director, The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho.
The name of the birds comes from the ancient Slavic word “bitch”, so in ancient times they called carrion. It is a chunky black bird about 60 cm (24 inches) long, with a very short tail, short wings, a bare black head, and a feathered hindneck. Often you can hear how a vulture is called a cruel and greedy person, in fact, the character of these birds is harmless. However, they are still not closely related to the other vultures.
All of the New World vultures and some of the Old World vultures have bare heads, a condition that prevents feathers from matting with blood when the birds reach inside carcasses. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Black vulture, also known as the American black vulture (. Therefore, both species of these birds specialize in eating corpses of small birds, rodents, rabbits, lizards, snakes, frogs, rotten fish, insects – in short, everything that is unable to interest powerful vultures. They rarely attack healthy animals, but may kill the wounded or sick. Ordinary vultures were also noticed for eating feces. Some traditional Old World vultures (including the bearded vulture) are not closely related to the others, which is why the vultures are to be subdivided into three taxa rather than two. Old World vultures comprise the subfamily Aegyptiinae of the hawk and eagle family, Accipitridae, which is part of the order Falconiformes. They are small brownish black vultures with red heads as adults (dark gray as juveniles) and a wingspan of nearly 2 metres (6.6 feet). A group of vultures is called a kettle, committee or wake. A brown vulture lives in Central and South Africa, its brother covers the whole of Africa, as well as the Mediterranean coast of Europe, the Caucasus, India; Individual specimens are noted in the Crimea.
This is largely due to the bushmeat trade, "it is estimated > 1 billion kg of wild animal meat is traded" and vultures take up a large percentage of this bushmeat due to their demand in the fetish market. The smaller New World vultures lay two eggs and incubate them for just over a month. Although vultures live in pairs, they can be safely called social birds. The palm-nut vulture (Gypohierax angolensis) lives in western and central Africa. It is about 50 cm (20 inches) long and has a bare orange face and yellow beak. When a carcass has too thick a hide for its beak to open, it waits for a larger scavenger to eat first. Although vultures live in pairs, they can be safely called social birds. Vast numbers have been seen upon battlefields. The head and neck are red, yellow, and bluish; the eyes are white with red eye-rings; the body is buff above and white below; and the neck fringe is gray.
accipiters, vultures, secretary birds, falcons, hawks, and bateleurs.…, …over the oceans, whereas some vultures and hawks have broad wings with slotted tips that permit more use of updrafts and winds deflected by hills.
[15] The substantial drop in vulture populations in the continent of Africa is also said to be the result of both intentional and unintentional poisoning, with one study finding it to be the cause of 61% of the vulture deaths recorded. The New World vultures include the California condor and the Andean condor; the Old World vultures include the birds that are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains. ", "Catastrophic collapse of Indian white-backed, "Vultures and their People in India: Equity and Entanglement in a Time of Extinctions", "Trade of threatened vultures and other raptors for fetish and bushmeat in West and Central Africa", "Another Continental Vulture Crisis: Africa's Vultures Collapsing toward Extinction", "Priority areas for conservation of Old World vultures", "The avian scavenger crisis: Looming extinctions, trophic cascades, and loss of critical ecosystem functions", "Over 500 Rare Vultures Die After Eating Poisoned Elephants In Botswana", "More than 500 endangered vultures die after eating poisoned elephant carcasses", "Poachers' Poison Kills 530 Endangered Vultures in Botswana", "Botswana: Over 500 vultures found dead after massive poisoning", Vulture Conservation in Western Coast of India, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vulture&oldid=980210816, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 September 2020, at 06:54.
Old World vultures have relatively strong feet, but New World Vultures have flat, weak feet that are poorly adapted for grasping.