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• Cape Griffon Vulture

Vultures are a vital part of nature’s clean up crew.  By eating carrion (the carcass of a dead animal) which may be filled with bacteria, they help reduce the spread of disease.

STATUS: Due to reduction in numbers of the ungulates that constitute a major part of their diet (and the loss of predators that prey on those ungulates), these birds have become vulnerable to extinction.

HABITAT: Cape Griffon vultures have the smallest distribution of any Old World vulture, found primarily in south and southwest Africa, and parts of Zimbabwe, Botswana, and the southeastern Republic of South Africa.  Nesting sites in mountainous areas are now confined to a small area of southeastern South Africa.

DIET: Like most other vultures the Cape griffon does not kill its prey but rather is a scavenger that feeds on carcasses of dead animals.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: A large buff-colored bird about 2 feet long with an 8 to 8½ foot wing span weighing approximately 15½ to 24 pounds.  Males and females are similar in size and appearance.  The blue-skinned head and neck are covered with short, whitish down feathers.  There is a white ruff at the base of the neck that can be drawn up against the cold.  The beak is hooked and sharp, designed to tear flesh, and the large feet are designed to apply leverage by holding food to the ground rather than picking it up and carrying it away.  A large crop allows these birds to transport the food to a safe place for eating or to their single chick in a cliff-side nesting area.

Follow the Leader

Cape Griffon vultures have extremely good eyesight and find food strictly by using their vision.  They not only look for dead and dying animals on the ground, but also watch each other.  A vulture finding prey will start to circle.  Other vultures observing this behavior will close in to investigate.  Within minutes of a vulture sighting prey, dozens may soon be at the carcass.

These birds are gregarious and colonial nesters.  Their numbers are declining due to loss of prey habitat and requirements that farmers bury dead livestock.  Chick survival rate is currently insufficient to maintain populations. Vulture “restaurants” have been established in some areas to provide supplemental meat and bones to wild birds.  Bone shards are an important source of calcium for chicks.  Lack of calcium is one of the main reasons many chicks do not survive fledging, as their bones are too weak to carry their weight in the air.