Vulture facts: nature's clean up crew | Animal Fact Files

Vultures are split into two groups: the American vultures (also known as condors) and the Asian, African, and European vultures. These two groups might appear to be related, but they aren't and thus act as an excellent example of convergent evolution which is when two groups of animals present similar traits but aren't related to one another. Vultures are often seen in a negative light probably because they eat a lot of dead things, but it's this exact behavior that makes them so important! They act as the clean up crew of nature!

Scientific Name:
American vultures (or "condors")
(family: Cathartidae)
Asian, African, and European vultures
(subfamily: Gypaetinae; subfamily: Aegypiinae)
Range: Everywhere except Antarctica and Australia
Size: Condors are some of the largest flying birds they can have 10 foot (3m) wingspans, though the smallest vultures may have wingspans of only 2 feet (61cm)
Diet: dead animals, garbage, young and small animals, reptiles like tortoises, excrement
Lifespan: decades - they're long lived birds

Check out this video by Shelby on Safari to learn more about vultures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew00jlYrZyQ

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We always do what we can to be as accurate as possible, but we're only human; if you catch a mistake please let us know and provide a link for verification!

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All images, videos and sound effects used herein are 1) public domain, 2) used under a Creative Commons license, 3) used with the express permission of the copyright holder, or 4) used under the parameters of Fair Use law.

Credits via Youtube:
Lennart Hessel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ8WzIJwL84

Credits via Flickr:
BooZoo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/133004628@N05/46450578082
Rusty Clark - https://www.flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark/31593276240; https://www.flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark/31930062476; https://www.flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark/31593262860; https://www.flickr.com/photos/rusty_clark/20803411511
Katja Schulz - https://www.flickr.com/photos/treegrow/6906703195
Fritz Flohr Reynolds - https://www.flickr.com/photos/fritzflohrreynolds/8891450106
Bernard DUPONT - https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/32898821040; https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/32505850823; https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/33240771766
devra - https://www.flickr.com/photos/minicooper93402/21928101653
dutchman_svh - https://www.flickr.com/photos/9144267@N02/8071072628

Credits via Wiki Users:
NJR ZA - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lappet-faced_Vulture_-_001.ogv
Sam Hall - https://vimeo.com/127232055
TonyCastro - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_(Steppe)_Buzzard.jpg

Other attributions:
jaquebooya - https://vimeo.com/62963778
Jesse Jenkins - https://vimeo.com/44997756
wreckandsalvage - https://vimeo.com/40871203


Websites used for research collection:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mamma_s_Stories_about_Birds/yyXEDwAAQBAJ
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Vulture/xejeDQAAQBAJ
https://centerofthewest.org/2017/02/20/old-new-world-vultures-differ
https://www.4vultures.org/vultures
https://www.thespruce.com/buzzards-vs-vultures-4171318
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/vulture-bird
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v079n04/p0413-p0416.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=56259
https://www.britannica.com/animal/vulture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulture


This video is licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)*.

*you can find information about all the different types of CC licenses here: https://creativecommons.org/
**changes were made to the original