Monday, March 30, 2009

I saw three black vultures clustered around a deer carcass on the Parkway this past weekend, while on my way down to Cape May. Strangely, as I drove past at 70 miles per hour, all three vultures seemed to watch me as I passed, almost as if they were waiting for me to come by. Turkey vulture is my totem animal, and I see plenty of them during my weekly trips, but I do see black vultures every so often. So, I decided to do a little reading and see what the differences are between the two species, cathartes aura and coragyps atratus.

The turkey vulture feeds entirely on carrion, which it locates through its excellent eyesight and highly developed sense of smell. Because the turkey vulture has very weak talons and beak, it will not catch even the tiniest of live prey. Rather, they tend to clean up roadkills or dead fish washed up on the banks of rivers, lakes or oceans. The turkey vulture often flies with its wings in a “v” shape, and is quite graceful in flight; they can soar for hours with very few flaps of their wings. However, takeoffs are not quite as graceful, and require wing flapping and circling in order to gain altitude. They do not build nests and will lay their blotchy-looking eggs in caves, rock piles, hollow tree stumps and even cliff ledges. The turkey vulture has a unique defense tactic: when disturbed, it regurgitates its last meal; in other words, it throws up the stinky contents of its crop. Eeewwwww!

The black vulture, which is also known as the carrion crow, feeds mainly on carrion, but will also supplement their diet with vegetable matter. The black vulture does not smell as well as the turkey vulture, and usually observes its cousins from a distance as they begin a meal, and then drops down and takes over the kill. Black vultures often dominate a feeding sight, even if they did not discover it. On the ground the black vulture gets around by hopping awkwardly, and taking off and landing can be amusing spectacles because the black vulture is the least graceful member of the vulture family. Once they are in the air, they are quite graceful, a striking sight with their white primary feathers at the tips of black wings in a flat line and tail feathers fanned. Black vultures lay their eggs in caves, tree stumps or on the ground, after indulging in courtships consisting of chases, high flights and downward spirals, dancing on the ground and bumping chests. Both parents take care of their young. Black vultures adopt easily to well populated areas, and have been known to befriend humans!

4 comments:

  1. you are a strange...strange woman....

    and strange...strange things make you happy....

    But I'm glad the vultures are doing their part to keep NJ clean....

    =)

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  2. I mean...most people worry they might be getting old when vultures watch them pass....lol...

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  3. Reminds me of the cartoon of two vultures with one saying to the other "patience my a## I am going to kill something"

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  4. You know, Raspberry, I never thought of it that way! LOL, I guess it was a good thing I was going so fast.

    *grin* Yep, Pan, the vultures on the NJ Parkway don't need patience. Especially in Ocean County, there are lots of deer and other critters. I just don't know how people can hit a full grown deer going as fast as some drivers are moving and not end up in a bad accident.

    Hey, maybe that's what the vultures want! They set up the carcass and the few "diners" in the hope that some crazy speeding human will crash as they rubberneck at 85 mph.

    Okay, let me stop this train of thought. Oy. I guess I am stranger than even I realized. *wink*

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