This also enables them to use their reeking, corrosive vomit as a defense when threatened. If a dead animal has a very thick hide which the vulture cannot get into, it waits for a larger scavenger to eat first. Vultures are known to strip meat, skin and even feathers, leaving only the skeleton of the animal remaining, however, some vultures will also eat bones, along with the other parts of an animal.
Vultures seldom attack healthy animals, however, they may kill a wounded or sick animal. Vultures are generally solitary animals although they will fly in focks when circling prey. Vultures can fly at speeds of 48 kilometres per hour 30 miles per hour. They fly in circular motions in order to gain height. Vultures have a unique way of cooling themselves in the African heat by urinating. This not only cools them, but disinfects their legs which kills any germs they may have picked up walking through the carcasses.
The main predators of the Vultures are Hawks, Snakes and Wild cats. To get away from any danger the vulture will bring up what it has just eaten, or some projectile vomit that will smell awful for a few days if it touches you. The White-backed Vulture breed at the beginning of the dry season.
They breed in savanna trees in west and east Africa, nesting in loose colonies of between 2 — 13 birds. Vultures tend to have just one mate per year. Female Vultures lay one egg at a time in a platform nest made from leaves and sticks built in trees or cliffs. The same nest might be used for a number of years. Eggs are incubated for around 50 days. Young Vultures are dark in colour with light brown streaks on their feathers.
Young Vultures are fed by both parents until they fledge at around — days. Vultures mature at around 5 — 7 years old. However, conservationists in South Africa are warning that vultures are endangered and could soon become extinct because they are being hunted down for use by traditional healers. The population is mostly resident. It often moves in flocks, and is very abundant. In much of its range, there are always several visible soaring in the sky at almost any time during the day.
This vulture is typically unafraid of humans, and frequently gathers around habitation. Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals and waste which it finds by soaring over savannah and around human habitation, including waste tips and abattoirs. If these birds are disturbed when at their nest, they utter a squealing cry.
Copyright: Wikipedia. It uses material from Wikipedia. Being scavengers, they eat dead animals or carrion, relying on their beaks and talons to eat their food, which can be fairly messy. It is not easy for vultures to clean their heads, but they can easily shake off the mess. The sun will kill the remaining bacteria, so this is why they are bald. The Hooded vulture lives in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and other countries, in a range of habitats, from semi-deserts to coastal lowlands though to forests and open woodlands.
It is most common in savannahs and grassland, especially near human settlements, as villages and towns are a good source of food. The Hooded vulture is very abundant and often travels in a flock. Its powerful toes are suited for walking and running, but not for the catching of prey.
More courageous than most other vultures, hooded vultures do approach humans. A funny and common behavior is following a plough, to collect the delicious insects and larvae that have been disturbed. But though daring with humans, this bird is shyer than it seems. When flying, it holds its wings the same way large vultures do as it rises, and drops them in the same way, to make its body dark when on the ground.
Being smaller than many other vultures, it is quicker to take off, and is often first to find carrion. The adult is usually silent, but chicks will peep to their parents when being fed.
Hooded vultures are scavengers, they eat insects, bone and carrion. Hooded vultures are monogamous and pairs remain together for life. Courtship displays are not remarkable, however, sometimes the male swoops down to the female, or it dances in circles on the ground with its claws held out. The breeding season varies depending on the location, but the timing is usually such that eggs are laid during or immediately after the local rainy season, so that there will be a reliable supply of food.
The nest is built up in a tree which is often a Baobab , and reused year by year, and is well lined throughout the nesting season with fresh vegetation. A single egg is laid and the mother is very attentive. Incubation is for around 48 to 54 days, by both parents, though mainly by the female, who is fed by the male at the nest. The chick is very weak when it hatches, and needs constant attention from its parents, a lot more than other vultures. The chick will be dependent on its parents for seven months, by when it will have grown all its plumage and taken its first flights.
The dramatic decline in the number of Hooded vultures is due to increasing use of poisoning, as well as hunting for use in traditional medicine, as bushmeat and the deliberate mis-selling as chicken.
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