#torgos

[herpsandbirds]

Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos), family Accipitridae, order Accipitriformes, Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe

ENDANGERED.

This is the largest species of vulture in Africa with a wingspan reaching up to 2.9m (9.5ft).

photograph by Henk Bogaard

[dwmmphotography]

It is scavenger Sunday, and vultures are adorable.

[raw-wild]

Lappet-faced Vulture & White-backed Vulture | Ertjies Bierman

[snototter]

A lappet faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) observes its surroundings in Maasai Mara National Park, Kenya

by praveen pandian

[saritawolf]

Lappet-faced Vultures (Torgos tracheliotos) - (c) SaritaWolf - please do not repost

[mintybirdyblog]

Torgos model- took a second try at sculpting my character probably wont rig this till way later since I'm working on the 2D animations for the project related to the character

[super-mario-rpg]

My second charity commission - Torgos, who belongs to @mintybirdy!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Torgos tracheliotos

By Steve Garvie, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Etymology: Vulture

First Described By: Kaup, 1828

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Inopinaves, Telluraves, Afroaves, Accipitrimorphae, Accipitriformes, Accipitridae

Status: Extant, Endangered

Time and Place: In the last 10,000 years, in the Holocene of the Quaternary 

The Lappet-Faced Vulture is known from arid locations around Africa and the Arabian Peninsula 

Physical Description: Lappet-Faced Vultures are fairly typical looking vultures, and ginormous birds too - ranging up to 115 centimeters in body length, with 280 centimeter long wingspans. They are brown all over their backs and wings with white bellies and legs, and they have naked heads (as many vultures do). This distinctive contrast in feather color makes the Lappet-Faced Vulture fairly easy to spot! These heads can be pink or brown, depending on the sub-population. They have bulky, sharp clawed feet, and very large hooked beaks. The juveniles are also brown, and still have some feathery down on their heads unlike the bare-headed adults.

Diet: These vultures - like most vultures - eat primarily carrion, including both large and small carcasses. They do occasionally hunt for their own food, but more than that they’ll take fresh food caught by other raptors like eagles. 

By Chris Eason, CC BY 2.09 

Behavior: These birds will make groups of large numbers of vultures, of multiple species, gathering at carcasses or sources of food, pulling off food from the carcass including the skin and bones. They will soar low and slowly over wide areas while looking for food, able to cover large distances with low energy through their large and broad wings. They have poor senses of smell, unlike other vultures, and so mainly rely on hearing and sight in order to find carcasses. They do interact with each other while feeding, fighting and arguing over carcasses - but other than that, the Lappet-Faced Vulture tends to stay silent and solitary while on the move, only making some hisses and chattering while at carcasses and at the nest. They only migrate due to the changing in rain and dry season, though they do have very large territories in which they search for food. 

By Dominic Sherony, CC BY-SA 2.0 

Unlike other vultures, the Lappet-Faced vulture does not partake in communal roosts. Instead, they nest alone, though pairs can clump a little within an area with suitable nesting sites. They make a platform of sticks, lined with dry grass, placed on exposed trees like the Acacia trees. They lay their eggs usually in the dry season, laying only one egg per nest that incubates for nearly two months of time. The chicks are then fluffy and white, becoming grey after moulting, and fledge after more than four months. The parents will take care of the young together, even though the young are dependent on the parents for such a long time. The young will stay near the parents for an entire year before going out on their own, and they are not sexually mature until six years of age. It is uncertain if the adults form lifelong pair bonds, or just seasonal pair bonds.

Ecosystem: Lappet-Faced Vultures live in steppe and desert habitats, and do verge into open savanna and arid plains. They are occasionally found in mountain slopes as well, and along the edges of forests. They have no major predators other than humans, but have been known to be the victims of nest parasitism. 

By Yathin sk, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Other: Lappet-Faced Vultures have a very small and rapidly declining population, entirely threatened due to human activity. They are scattered across huge, disconnected ranges, with low density in each range. Habitat disturbance, human cultivation, nesting site disturbance, pesticides, and hunting all threaten these populations - humans tend to kill these birds without question and without qualm. They were only listed as vulnerable recently, too, and the plight of the Lappet-Faced Vulture only recently made news on a global scale. They tend to be killed and chased off from cattle carcasses, for example, even though they rely on them for food. On estimation, there are probably less than 9,000 of these beautiful birds left in the world - but, because they’re “ugly vultures”, no one seems to care. Legislation over pesticides is ongoing, and there are breeding programs active in Israel, but there is very little research or ongoing programs to protect these wonderful birds.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut 

Ferguson-Lees, James and Christie, David A. (2001) Raptors of the World. Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 978-0-618-12762-7.

Hardy, Eric (1947). "The Northern Lappet-faced Vulture in Palestine—A new record for Asia" (PDF). Auk. 64 (3): 471–472.

Jobling, J. A. 2010. The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. Christopher Helm Publishing, A&C Black Publishers Ltd, London.

Kemp, A.C., Christie, D.A. & Sharpe, C.J. (2019). Lappet-faced Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.