Animalia Life

Neophron percnopterus
SUBFAMILY
Accipitrinae
TAXONOMY
Vultur perenopterus [sic] Linnaeus, 1758, Egypt. Two subspecies.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: Scavenger vulture; French: Vautour percnoptиre; German: Schmutzgeier; Spanish: Alimoche Comъn.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
22.8–27.6 in (58–70 cm); 3.5–4.9 lb (1.6–2.2 kg). Distinctive contrasting coloration between white head and body and black flight feathers.
DISTRIBUTION
N.p. percnopterus: Europe to central Asia and northwest India, south to Tanzania, Angola, and Namibia; also Canary and Cape Verde Islands and Socotra. N.p. ginginianus: India and Nepal.
HABITAT
Frequents extensive open country of dry, arid regions: steppe, scrub, desert, pastures, and cereal crops. Also in flat mountainous areas usually at low to moderate altitudes, cities and towns (especially Africa and India). Nests in rocky areas.
BEHAVIOR
Usually solitary or in pairs but a hundred or more may congregate where food is abundant and at roosts on cliffs, trees or on buildings. In north of range migrate to Africa just south of Sahara and north of the equator. In India, Arabia, sub-Saharan Africa, Balearic and Canary Islands apparently sedentary or make local movements.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Opportunistic feeder, dependent on rubbish dumps and carcass disposal sites; carrion and refuse is main food. Less often, catches live prey, usually sick or otherwise vulnerable. Also insects, crustaceans lifted from the water and birds’ eggs; large eggs broken by throwing a stone.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Usually, breeds as solitary pair but occasionally two nests in close proximity. Monogamous. Builds a substantial, untidy nest of sticks lined with wool, rags and hair in a cleft, cave or narrow ledge at height on a cliff, often overhung; also on ruins, date palms and other trees where no cliffs. Typically, lays two eggs in March– May (earlier in some areas); incubation 42 days; fledges at about 11 weeks. Unlike most raptors, regurgitates food for chicks.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened. Population has undergone a general decline but may now be stable. Main European population is now Spain; main population is Ethiopia. Fewer carcasses, reductions in small prey species, poisoning and persecution all thought to be factors in decline.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Its image was carved into Egyptian monuments but apparently the species was never worshipped, as was the more powerful Eurasian griffon (Gyps fulvus).

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