Interesting Facts About Vultures – Webtekno

Remember the Western movies: a dehydrated cowboy walks through the desert and vultures circle above him, realizing that he is about to die. Because this image is engraved in our minds and appears in many popular culture products. Vultures are scary birds for most of us. Of course, another reason for this frighteningness is their bald heads, long beaks and hunched posture.

The main reason why vultures are associated with death is that they are scavengers. It’s normal that they don’t seem very cute because whenever we see them in a documentary they call them a dead animal. Already Their goal is not to be cute, but to survive. Vultures, which survive strongly despite many adverse conditions in the wild, owe their strong will to their unique characteristics.

Information about vultures:

• There are dozens of vulture species living in different parts of the world, including Türkiye.
• Vultures only eat carrion.
• Stomach acids can even break down a bone.
• If you threaten vultures, they will not attack you, they will make you sick.
• Their way of urinating is useful but a bit strange.
• If there is a dead person around, the vulture knows it.
• Vultures are almost completely silent birds.
• Soon there will be no vultures left.

There are dozens of vulture species living in different parts of the world, including Türkiye:

Vultures are evaluated under two main headings: Old World Vultures and New World Vultures. Old World Vultures; It consists of 16 species living in Africa, Asia and Europe and belongs to the Accipitridae family. New World Vultures consist of 7 species living in the American continent and belong to the Cathartidae family. Even though they are called vultures, the vultures of the two worlds are not exactly related, they just have similar characteristics. Vultures living in the Central Anatolia region of our country are called Black Vultures.

Vultures only eat carrion:

Many creatures living in nature eat carrion, such as hyenas. But vultures only eat carrion. In rare cases, they hunt injured animals. But their diet is based on eating carrion, that is, animals that have died before. Because of these features, vultures are known as the only vertebrate scavengers living on land. Other terrestrial scavengers are wolfflies and game beetles, but they are invertebrates.

Stomach acids can even break down a bone:

‘Of course they should eat carrion, bon appetit, but how come the bacteria found in rotting meat doesn’t make vultures sick?’ If you say, the answer is hidden in stomach acid. The acid produced in the stomach of vultures has a pH value of 1.0. It has the lowest pH value among animals on Earth. This means that the vulture’s stomach acid is very acidic. This acid destroys all bacteria. But since this acid is also corrosive enough to self-destruct the stomach, vultures occasionally swallow bones. This way the acid takes care of other things without harming the stomach.

If you threaten vultures, they won’t attack you, they will make you sick:

If you’re one of those people who gets sick when they see someone vomiting, it’s best to stay away from vultures. Because When a vulture feels threatened Instead of attacking, he vomits on the ground. The purpose of this is to lighten the load and soar and fly much faster. Considering that vultures eat carrion, it is clear that what emerges is not only quite disgusting, but also distracting for a potential predator.

Their urination method is useful but a little strange:

We all know more or less how birds urinate, but when it comes to vultures, forget what you know. Because they are They urinate in a way that wets their entire legs, a process called urohidrosis. The reason is simple: vultures constantly wander among carcasses, and especially their legs catch bacteria from carcasses. While stomach acid kills bacteria in the stomach, urine kills bacteria in the legs. Urinating on the legs also helps them stay cool in the arid climates they live in.

Speaking of heat, let’s talk about another skill that vultures have acquired evolutionarily. Gives vultures a frightening appearance The reason for their bald heads is to protect themselves from the heat. Vultures, which survive in this way even in African countries where temperatures are above 40 degrees, lose most of their body heat as soon as they extend their heads and open their wings, and continue to sit coolly.

If there is a dead person around, the vulture knows it:

Of course, he doesn’t know this thanks to a mystical power born into him. For the vulture, dead means food. Vultures are birds with the strongest sense of smell known in the world. and they can smell a carcass from almost two kilometers away. New World Vultures have a much stronger sense of smell than Old World Vultures. So much so that the sensory organ of the Turkey Vulture is four times larger than that of other vultures.

Old World Vultures have evolutionarily developed another skill in this regard. They see very well. Since they live in an open habitat, when they rise up and take a tour around, they immediately see who is dead and who is injured, and they slowly come down and feed themselves.

Vultures are almost completely silent birds:

Of course not all of them. Some vulture species make some sounds, although they are not like the chirping of birds we know. However, New World Vultures The syrinx organ they use to produce sound is not in the larynx, Because it was below the windpipe, they were almost completely silent. However, if you get closer and listen, you may hear some hissing and grunting-like sounds.

Soon there will be no vultures left:

We’re not surprised, are we? More than half of the 23 known vulture species are endangered, and four are at critical extinction point. There are thought to be only 22,000 of a species known as Ruppell’s Vulture left in the world. Maybe it has decreased even more as you read these lines. Some of the vultures are hunted by poachers, some of them are poisoned by eating the carcasses of animals poisoned by poachers, and some of them are poisoned by drugs because they eat the carcass of an animal that has been given medication by a veterinarian for some reason, even though it is in the wild. As the number of vultures decreases, the bacteria of the remaining carcasses spread around and affect the whole nature.

With its bald head, humped back and long beak about vultures, which are always associated with death in popular culture We talked about interesting information, some of which you heard for the first time. What can we say, we even harmed an animal that was wandering around and eating carrion.