Interesting facts about vultures

VULTURES are sociable creatures and are often seen as a collective unit, but the name assigned to a group of vultures all depends on what they are doing at that given time. Like most bird groups, vultures can be referred to as a flock, though they can also be labelled as either a venue, volt, or a committee. However, when it comes to the vulture group feeding around a carcass, they are called a wake, and when the birds are in flight formation, they are known as a kettle.

One of the environment’s most necessary — but often overlooked — creatures.

These intelligent birds are uniquely equipped to keep the environment clean and help prevent the spread of disease.

A world without vultures would be a foul-smelling place filled with disease and rotting carcasses — let’s hear it for these unsung environmental heroes.

There are 23 species of “vultures”: 16 Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and seven New World vultures (including the two condors) found in the Americas.

Old World and New World vultures are actually not closely related. However, because both groups perform highly-specialised functions, they have developed similar biological traits.

Old World vultures do not have a good sense of smell — they rely exclusively on incredible eyesight to locate food — a soaring vulture can spot a three-foot animal carcass from 6,4km away.

Several species of New World vultures have a good sense of smell, unusual for raptors.

The Rueppell’s griffon vulture is the world’s highest flying bird. In 1973, one collided with an airplane off the Ivory Coast; at the time, the plane was flying at 11km/h.

Vultures can eat up to 20% of their own body weight in one sitting.

Vultures are equipped with a digestive system that contains special acids that will dissolve anthrax, botulism, and cholera bacteria.

Vultures do not go after healthy prey, but will attack wounded and dying animals.

New World vultures have the unusual habit of urohydrosis — defecating on their legs to cool them by evaporation.

The bald, or lightly-feathered, head is specially designed to stay clean even when confronted with blood and bodily fluids present in the carcasses. Any remaining germs are baked off by the sun.

By consuming the carcasses of diseased animals, vultures prevent the spread of life-threatening diseases such as rabies and anthrax among animals and humans.

Most vulture species mate for life.

The vomit of a vulture, followed by the action of flying away, is the most common defensive tactic against an adversary. If the food is relatively undigested, the predator is rewarded with a free meal. If the food is mostly digested, the foul-smelling substance acts as a deterrent and will sting the eyes of a predator if it lands in their face.

Most vultures are social and several species can often be seen feeding together on the same carcass.

One of the few animals to use tools, Egyptian vultures use rocks to break open ostrich eggs.