Bearded Vulture
(Lammergeier Vulture)
Gypaetus barbatus
Size: A medium-sized vulture, with an 8 1/2 foot wingspan
Voice:
Diet/Feeding: Because bearded vultures are smaller and much less dominant than their other vulture relatives, they have adapted to a scantier diet consisting mostly of the bones left behind after all the other scavengers have had their fill. Their tongues are specially designed with grooves for removing marrow from the hard-to reach center of bones. The bearded is the only vulture that can carry food with its feet.
Once a bone is cracked and the marrow is exposed, the vulture will swallow it whole, allowing its powerful digestive system to dissolve the solid object. It can swallow bones up to 10cm in diameter, and may begin digesting a bone while part of it is still protruding from the beak! This vulture can digest an entire vertebra in a day or two. Bearded vultures will occasionally drop small turtles and tortoises in the same manner as a bone, to crack open their shells and reach the edible insides. They have been known to hunt small prey only in times of great need.
Flight: In flight, the bearded vulture's silhouette resembles that of a falcon, but it has a diamond-shaped tail, and different patterns of movement. They like to patrol cliff faces, rather than soaring above flatlands like other vultures.
Range/Habitat: Cliffs of Tibet and Ethiopia. Rare in southern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
Behavior: The bearded vulture is most famous for its intelligent habit of carrying bones high into the air and dropping them on the rocks below. After a few drops, the bone has cracked enough for the vulture to reach the nutritious marrow inside. The bearded vulture is one of the shyest of vultures, and lives a mostly solitary existence, on remote mountains and cliff faces. They avoid developed areas, but live in close range with the pastoral dwellers of India, where they are more accepted and appreciated.
Life Cycle: Sexes alike, but female is slightly larger. Can be confused with immature Egyptian vultures only at long ranges. Juveniles are slightly darker than their parents.
Breeding: Courtship consists of amazing aereal acrobatics, with both vultures flying about a chosen nesting site, shooting into the air, diving sharply, and spiralling around. Occasionally, the male will descend towards the female, whereupon she turns upside down, and grasps talons with him. Common behavior in eagles, "presenting claws" in the air is not seen among any other species of vultures.
Bearded vultures prefer to nest at high altitudes on cliff ledges, and construct their 5 to 8-foot wide nests of large sticks. They line it with just about any soft item they can find, including sheep wool and the occasional rag.
The bearded vulture's breeding density increases in areas with greater relief. These vultures usually nest far from others of their kind. A pair will lay 1 to 3 eggs per clutch, with a span of 2 to 3 days between each egg. The eggs typically incubate for 55 to 60 days. Both parents participate in caring for their offspring. Young are fed on regurgitated food, but have switched to a diet of undigested meat and bones before they have left the nest.
Status: The bearded vulture is Europe's rarest vulture. Many bearded vultures are no longer present in their old ranges because of human persecution. They often fall victim to loss of habitat, illegal shooting, and indirect poisoning. Many local myths present the vulture as a predator who steals young lambs and babies. Recently, regulations have been posed which do not allow farmers to leave carcasses out in the open where they may be accessed by scavengers. These laws have contributed a great deal to the decline of lammergeier populations.
Folklore, Misc. Information: The Bearded Vulture is the only vulture who is feathered below the knee. This and many other features, such as the courtship flight, link it closely with eagles, making it, presumably, the closest hawk/eagle relative among the old world vultures.
The Afrikaans name, Lammergeier, translates to "Lamb Vulture." Conservationists are trying to discourage use of this name, as it perpetuates the myth of the bearded vulture as a livestock predator.
An ancient greek story tells of a bearded vulture who had just picked up a tortoise to eat, when he looked down and saw the poet Aeschylus walking along. Mistaking his bald head for a rock, the vulture dropped the tortoise, nailing the man squarely on the noggin. The impact killed the man immediately. This story, passed down for ages, even influenced one man to insure his life agains falling tortoises.
The bearded vulture is one of the vultures believed to be commonly mistaken for an eagle in much of the Bible's text.
A Bearded Vulture in many languages:
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