Lappet-faced Vulture
Lappet-faced Vulture ( Aegypius tracheliotus )
The Lappet-faced Vulture ( Aegypius tracheliotus, Syn Torgos tracheliotus ) is a very large representatives of the Old World vulture ( Aegypiinae ). It inhabits most of Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the continuing decline in inventory, the IUCN classified the species as endangered worldwide ( "vulnerable ").
Description
This huge and very powerfully built vulture counts with a body length of 95-115 cm and a wingspan of 250-290 cm to the largest Old World vultures and one of the largest birds of prey in general. The weight of birds from East Africa amounted to 5.4 to 9.2 kg, was 6.2 kg.
Lappet-faced Vulture of the nominate form are almost uniformly dark brown blackish. Back and upper wing-coverts are dark brown, wings and tail feathers are dark brown on the upper side a little darker. Chest and stomach on a white background striped strong brown, the white color is caused here by the Dunengefieder, the brown striations standing by the loose brown coverts. The under wing-coverts are as dark as the wings, on the lower wings is due to missing ceiling a narrow white band formed. On the sides of the neck and the legs lack the coverts, the exposed dunes are also white.
The head is just like the front of the upper neck, featherless, wrinkled and pale pink colored. Upon excitation of the bare head and neck areas of intense color red. A brown white ruff is indicated. The very large and strong beak is pale yellowish horn-colored or greenish brown, the upper beak is very dark on the ridge. The cere is bluish; the featherless part of the legs and toes are pale blue to gray. The iris is dark brown.
Juveniles are overall and including Beinbefiederung uniformly brown, the white birds in adult areas on the chest and wings are covered by a dense cover plumage. The naked neck and head parts are pale pink, the beak is blackish horn-colored to yellowish gray. The legs are gray-brown. The coloration of the adult birds is reached after six or seven years.
Distribution and habitat
The fragmented into numerous individual occurrence distribution area of the ears vulture includes large parts of Africa and parts of the Arabian Peninsula.
The type inhabited by humans with little or no inhabited arid landscapes, especially dry savannah with little or no grass cover of the soil, but also deserts and semi-deserts with restricted to wadis stands of trees and hillsides. When foraging also areas with denser vegetation and more people used areas will be examined, for example roadsides. The species occurs regularly until 3000 m altitude before, locally up to 4500 m altitude.
System
In addition to the nominate another subspecies is recognized:
- Ae. t. negevensis; Arabian Peninsula; overall brownish than the nominate form and the legs are brown feathered. The head is more or less covered with gray-white dunes. In young birds the head and neck are gray white with at most a light pink tone.
Nutrition
The diet consists mainly of carrion, with both large mammals and small mammals, birds and reptiles such as monitor lizards and other lizards are eaten. The nestling diet consists mostly of small vertebrates. The animals also eat placentas and eggs of birds and turtles. It is believed that Lappet-faced Vulture also other birds of prey snatch prey or hunt small vertebrates itself, is proved to be the predation of adult and young flamingos nest in colonies.
Like other vultures looking for food in the ears vultures circling search flight at a higher altitude, but probably also in the low search flight and possibly also from a hide out in the hunt for live prey. The food flights made at least in part over large distances in Israel of their breeding places were Lappet-faced Vulture being watched more than 150 km to the north. Carrion is mainly through their own search found less by watching other vultures; the type therefore often arrives first thing in the carrion. Lappet-faced vultures are the only African vulture able to tear the skin of large mammals. They do this apparently rarely and seldom eat kosher meat. Although they are dominant over other vultures on carrion, they usually stay on the edge of larger accumulations vultures and then eat mostly fragments of skin, tendons, and other food debris. Even on larger carcasses often find only one or two or up to a maximum of 10 individuals; where the species is common, but also 25-50 animals can be gathered.
Reproduction
The species breeds singly in pairs. The incubation period varies depending on the geographical distribution, it falls in northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula in the period from November to July or September, in parts of East Africa is all year brooded and Southern Africa May to January. The up to 2.2 m wide and 0.3-0.7 m high nest is built in 3 to 15 m height on the crown of an acacia or other small tree. It consists of branches and is lined with fur scraps, hair, and dry grass. The one or two white eggs with brown spots are incubated 54-56 days, usually only one young bird will fledge.
Due to the strong sunlight, the young bird must be up to the age of about 30 days shaded almost continuously from the parents. After the shading is done less complete; but it is only set when the nestling has trained the back deck feathers around the age of 65-78 days and a regulation of its body temperature is sufficiently capable. As with many vultures, the returning adult bird regurgitated food on the nest edge. The young bird is fed up to the age of 30 days by a adult bird, then it can automatically feed from the nest edge. At age 55-68 days, he begins to beg for food by chopping aggressively after the beak of the adult birds. With the start of this phase, no adult bird stayed longer on the nest, but in a neighboring tree. With about 90 days, the young bird begins flying exercises, at the age of 125-135 days, he leaves the nest. The young birds remain after four to six months depending on the parents.
Inventory and risk
The portfolio development is regional variation, overall the stock in the last about 80 years has decreased significantly. The Lappet-faced Vulture is in Algeria and Tunisia since the 1930s, died out in Western Sahara in the 1950s and in Morocco in the early 1970s, have small populations in the south of Egypt and possibly also in Mauritania only survived. In Saudi Arabia, at least 500 ears vultures live with an increasing tendency. In Nigeria, the stock has slumped dramatically since the late 1970s and today is the way there possibly extinct, even in Israel is no longer the kind of breeding birds. The stock throughout southern Africa goes back slowly. The IUCN estimates the total population in Africa at least 8,000 birds.
Main causes of decline are poisoning by poison bait and direct persecution, because you kind of assumed that predation from pets. Other factors are threatening the existence of disturbances at the nest, declining food and habitat destruction. Due to the continuing decline in inventory, the IUCN classified the species as endangered worldwide ( "vulnerable ").