Diet and Hunting Abilities
Like many scavengers, the bearded vulture feeds mostly on the remains of dead animals; they usually ignore the actual meat and just eat their bones. This creature lives on a diet that is typically 85–90% bone marrow. In Crete, this creature is well known as the "bone-eater." They are like the cleaners of a crime scene, leaving nothing but blood stains. The way this animal eats is extraordinary and speculative. The bird carries the larger bones in flight to a height between 50–150 m (160–490 ft) above the ground and then drops them on top of a rocky slope, which smashes them into smaller pieces and immediately descends after them in a spiral. This bird can swallow and digest any bones in the size of a sheep’s vertebrae. They can eat the smaller bones as a whole since their gastric fluids are solid and can help them digest bones easily. This dietary habit might seem odd, but once the bones are digested, they count as a nutritious and easily storable type of food. In addition to that, the vulture faces a lot of competition for this kind of food because there are many other scavengers animals out in the wildlife.
The vultures prefer sheep's limbs and other small mammals. They tend to carry the food to the nest, unlike other vultures which feed their younger ones by regurgitation. The bearded vulture doesn't only feed on dead animals; they sometimes like live preys too. Among these live preys, the tortoises seem to be one of them, but it depends on their local abundance since it pretty heavy for them to carry. Tortoises weight is nearly as heavy as the preying vulture. Whenever the vulture hunts a turtle, they do the process they do for the larger bones. They fly to some height and drop them to crack open the reptiles' hard shells. Some other live mamas they devour are usually nearly their sizes, such as the hares, marmots, monitor lizards, and rock hyraxes. They do feed on some other larger animals, including Carpa goats, Chamois, ibex, and Steenbok. Many of these big animals that are killed by the bearded vultures are usually young or were born sick or obviously injured.
There have been occasions in where humans have been anecdotally reported to be killed by a vulture in the same way. If this ever happens, most biologists who have studied the birds, generally says it would be accidental part of the vulture. Since the human body is all covered with meat, and they only look for bones; most of the times. Occasionally smaller ground-dwelling birds, such as pigeons and partridges, have been reported eaten by the bearded vulture too, possibly either is a fresh corpse (which is usually ignored by these birds) or killed with beating wings by the vulture.
While foraging for bones or live prey while in flight, bearded vultures fly relatively low over the rocky ground, staying around 2 to 4 m (6.6 to 13.1 ft) high
Breeding
When the bearded vulture is pregnant, they occupy an enormous territory year-round. It may take over two square kilometers each day. The breeding period is different depending on the location, in Eurasia, they breed during December through September. In the Indian subcontinent from November to June, In Ethiopia and eastern Africa from October to May and South Africa, from May to January. The territorial and breeding display of bearded vultures is often spectacular. These creatures will show off their talons, spiraling and tumbling while in their solo flight. The way these birds make their nest is a little different from other big birds. Their nests are built of a massive pile of sticks, that could go from 1 m (3.3 ft) across and 69 cm (27 in) deep. Typically, their nests are in caves on steep rock walls or ledges and rock outcrops, so other nest-predating mammals could never access them. As mentioned before, the female tends to lay a clutch of 1 to 2 eggs; although there have been cases where they have laid three those are on infrequent occasions. Because they tend to die in a couple of hours after hatching and if they are lucky, they could be safe by scientists who will incubate them for 53 to 60 days. After chicks hatched, they spend about 100 to 130 days in the nest before fledging. The first one might take away right after the 100th day, but the younger one may depend on their parents up to two years. Unfortunately, this animal lifespan isn't long. They live up to 21.4 years but have been observed some of them live for up to at least 45 years in captivity.
Conservation Status & Major Threats
The bearded vulture is a species in extinction in many locations, it usually occurs at low densities, anywhere between a dozen to 500 pairs. These kinds of creatures are most common in Ethiopia, where it has an estimated 1,400 to 2,200 are believed to breed the most. They are also pretty standard in many parts of the Himalayas as well. But unfortunately, it was mostly wiped out in Europe by the beginning of the 20th century, but has been locally reintroduced and is beginning to re-establish itself in preserved areas. The bearded vulture has also been extinct in many other places such as the Pyrenees of Spain, in parts of Asia, Africa, Swiss and Italian Alps; but has been successfully reintroduced in the past ten years. These declines are usually due to poisons left out on the bones they eat since most of their prey are weak or sick. Some other times are because of habitat
degradation, the disturbances of nests, and collisions with power lines. The bearded vulture was formerly persecuted in significant numbers because people feared that it regularly carried off children and domestic animals; unfortunately, the bird was hunted as a trophy. Despite these declines, the species apparently occupies an extensive range; there is an estimate are fewer than 10,000 pairs exist in the wild worldwide.
Conservation Actions Underway
The creation of a Multi-species Action plan for the conservation of Africa-Eurasian vultures is moving. In Europe, captive breeding and reintroduction programmes have been carried out in the French, Italian, Austrian, and Swiss Alps with individuals subsequently spreading into other parts of France. Reintroduction programmes are also in many parts of Spain. They have created feeding stations in the Pyrenees, which increased numbers of the species, and by doing simple actions like this, it could improve its global population density. However, while these have helped them to increase their population, it can also have a negative impact on the creature. For instance, they can lead to habitat overload, with individuals' territories overlapping at these areas, and can also lead to reduced productivity. A reintroduction programme was attempted in Kenya in 1999-2003, but it stopped since their population growth increased.
Spot them
It is pretty easy to confuse a bearded vulture and an eagle since they look pretty similar. Due to its long, narrow wings, with the wing chord measuring 71.5–91 cm (28.1–35.8 in), and long, wedge-shaped tail, which measures 42.7–52 cm (16.8–20.5 in) in length. The bearded vulture is around 94–125 cm (37–49 in) long with a wingspan of 2.31–2.83 m (7.6–9.3 ft). It weighs about 4.5–7.8 kg (9.9–17.2 lb). In Eurasia, vultures around the Himalayas tend to be slightly larger than those from other mountain ranges. Unlike most vultures, the bearded vulture doesn't have a bald head. This creature is relatively small headed, although their neck is very strong and thick. Their necks are usually elongated, slender shape, and sometimes appearing bulkier due to the often hunched back of these birds. The adult bearded vultures are mostly dark gray, soft and whitish; they have a grey-blue to a grey-black head. Bearded vultures have a variably orange and rust of plumage on their head, breast and leg feathers. This coloration may come from dust-bathing, rubbing mud on its body or from drinking in mineral-rich waters. Their tail feathers and wings are gray. While the younger birds are dark black-brown over most of the body, with a tan-brown breast and it takes five years to reach full maturity and their color changes.
"The Bearded Vulture is a bird of prey, who is closely related to hawks family, but the only difference is their feathered"