The Griffon Vulture

Тhe Griffon prefers to feed on the softer parts of carcasses, such as the muscles and viscera. Its long neck, allows it to reach far into a carcass without snagging. They are very social in comparison to other vulture species. They are mostly silent but make high-pitched mewing or hissing notes at the nest and screeching noises when squabbling at a carcass.

Did you know? A group of vultures feeding is called a wake, and that the leader of the committee will always eat first with wings spread wide. It is only when it lowers its wings that the other vultures may begin to eat.

Black Vulture

The Black vulture is one of the two largest vultures in the world, attaining a size of up to 14 kg in weight, 1.2 metres in height and boasting a whopping 3 metre wingspan. The Black vulture is distinctly dark, with the whole body being dark brown excepting the pale head in adults, which is covered in fine blackish down. It is a bird of hilly, mountainous areas, especially favouring dry semi-open habitats such as meadows at high altitudes. They are always associated with undisturbed, remote areas with limited human disturbance. In contrast to the Griffon, they are a solitary bird, largely being found alone or in pairs.

Rewilding Solutions

In the summer of 2019, our members funded the GPS tagging of griffon vultures in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal. Since then we have been supporting this vulture conservation intervention in collaboration with our partners at Rewilding Portugal. The detailed behavioural data acquired through this project is already providing answers to questions that before were only a matter of speculation.

Although the griffon vulture population in the Douro Valley has been monitored in the past, we could only guess where the vultures were foraging and what they were feeding on. This is where our vulture conservation project comes in by sponsoring the GPS devices required to track the movement patterns of griffon vultures.

These solar powered devices transmit precise geographical information without the need to recapture the individuals and have built in accelerometers that provide additional information about the way in which the vulture is moving at a given moment in time. This data can be used to determine when the vulture is resting, flying or foraging.

Moreover, this data can be used to identify the time and location of likely feeding events. By going to the field and looking for signs of feeding (such as carcass remains and vulture feathers), these feeding events can be confirmed and we can obtain information about what the vultures were feeding on, which in turn aids future vulture conservation efforts.