Vulture


 * Extinct Animal- Teratornis ||

**__ Vulture __** Vultures are large, drab- coloured birds which scavenge on carcasses of dead animals. There are two types of vultures which are the New World Vultures and the Old World Vultures.
 * Future Animal- Eagture ||

The Old World Vultures which can be found in Europe, Africa and Asia. It belongs to the family Accipitridae, which includes Eagles, kites, Buzzards and hawks. They can find carcasses easily by sight.

The New world Vultures can be found in warm and temperatures areas such as the North and South America. It belongs to the family Cathartidae. This family is still not closely related to the other vultures, they have a good sense of smell, unusual for raptors and they are able to smell the dead bodies of an animal when they are focused from a great height which is up to a mile away.

Vultures can be found in every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Vulture standing on a tree, looking for food.

__Endangered:__ The vultures in south Asia, especially in India have almost gone extinct in the last 10- 15 years due to a drug called Diclofenac which are used as pain- killers in humans and animals. The Government in India has taken very late cognizance of this fact and has banned drugs for animals since then, but this may take decades for vultures to come back to their earlier population level. picture of an endangered vulture in India The largest species is the Cinereous Vulture, it is a wingspan of 8 ½ feet, while the smallest is the Hooded Vulture which is roughly the size of a crow. picture of the Cinereous Vulture

Turkey Vulture

__Turkey Vulture Habitat__ The Turkey Vulture is one of the skilled flying birds comparing to the North American Birds. The Turkey Vulture is a bird that has a bald red head and dark feathers. It is a bird that is part of the New World Vultures and is normally found in America. The Turkey Vulture live in many places across the America, they get use to different living conditions. They can live in temperate and tropical forest, grassland and deserts. Cliffs and dry forests are the perfect place to provide nesting sites, but most turkey vultures nests are found in caves, trees or thickets.

A map showing where the Turkey Vulture lives in the world. The name Vulture is from the latin word “//vulturus//” meaning “//tearer//”, with is referring to its feeding habitats. The turkey vulture is a large soaring bird with entirely black- brown feathers, a short and curved colored beak and a bald head. Its life expectancy is up to 16 years in the wild, it can live for over 30 years with a captive life span. The Turkey Vulture has a bold dark red head, black or dark brown coloured feathers and with two toned under- wings. It has a gentle and non- aggressive behavior. It is around 64 to 81cm long and its wingspan is around 170- 183cm long. The weight of the turkey vulture is around 0.85 to 2.26KG. Its lifespan is around 5-15 years in the wild. It is hard to distinguish whether the vulture is a male or female. (Seen from the picture below)  The turkey vulture feeds only on carrion. Turkey vultures have a high sense of smell and keen vision to find its meals. They eat a large variety of carrion which includes: [|squirrels],[| shrews],[| rabbit], birds, [|mice], muskrat, reptiles, insects, woodchuck, opossum, skunk, raccoon, moles, bats and fox. They also eat fruits, leaves, grass and seeds. They travel around in large groups and rarely stay individually during the day as it is easier to find food in a larger group. They use thermal current to move in the sky when flying and they can fly up to 20 000feet high for hours without flapping their wings. They flap their wings when they are about to take- off or before landing.

They flap their wings when they are about to take- off or before landing. A Turkey Vulture can finish the whole carrion, no matter how large the carrion is, the Turkey Vulture can still finish it.

a photo of the Turkey vulture eating a carrion
 * [[image:http://stevecreek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Turkey_Vulture_110507_3930.jpg width="600" height="480" caption="Bugs Buzzing Around This Turkey Vulture"]] ||
 * [[image:http://stevecreek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Turkey_Vulture_110507_3927.jpg width="600" height="400" caption="A Turkey Vulture Eating A Dead Fish"]] ||
 * [[image:http://stevecreek.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Turkey_Vulture_110507_3936.jpg width="600" height="480" caption="A Turkey Vulture Eating A Dead Fish"]] ||
 * A turkey vulture eating a fish ||

Latin Name Cathartes __Adaptataion: __ There are many interesting and unique adaptations of the turkey vulture that make this species one of the most special bird in America.
 * Kingdom || Animalia ||
 * Species || Chordata ||
 * Class || Aves ||
 * Order || //Incertae sedis // ||
 * Family || Cathartidae ||
 * Genus || **//Cathartes //** ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Species || **//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">C. aura //** ||

The bald head of the turkey vulture plays an important role. When the turkey vulture is eating carrion, the bald head allows the vulture to dig deep into the carcass to reach the meat. It’s inconvenient if the vulture has a feathery head as there is a high chance to have unwanted pieces of the carrion stuck on its head, (just like pieces of food stuck on man’s beard). The environmental pressure that caused them to have bald head are mainly due to the environment they live. The turkey Vulture lives in a hot environment and eats carrion, hot environment will lead carrions to spread different diseases. The bald head keeps the Turkey Vulture away from the chance of causing infection and unhealthy or undeveloped feather growth at molt. Turkey Vultures have an interesting adaptation. Both adult and baby Turkey Vulture vomit when they approached or harassed by their predators, when they are handled by researchers and when they are scared or threatened. Predators of Turkey Vulture are normally animals that attack eggs or young, these include: Raccoon, domestic dogs, red fox and Virginia opossum. When they vomit, they simply cough up meat that can be fresh if the vulture had an over amount of food because it might take them several days to search for a carrion, therefore they will eat as much as possible without controlling themselves. They can vomit foods that are semi- digested and foul- smelling. When they are being threatened or scared, they spit some of the food from their stomach. They believe this is a very effective way to frighten the predators as they might think it is gross and leave, or the predators might take the food that was spat out from the vulture than continuing to pursue the vulture. The environmental pressure that caused them to vomit is mainly because of the lack of food in the hot environment. There are not a large amount of animals living in the hot environment, therefore the Turkey Vultures eat anything if they see a dead animal, they can't control themselves and this leads them to vomit after eating too much. The turkey vulture has a very good sense of smell comparing to other birds. They use their sense of smell to find food. The part of its brain responsible for processing the smell is particularly large comparing to other birds. This ability allows them to find dead animals over a mile away which is very special in the world and it allows them to find carrions below a forest canopy. They can smell carrions that are less than 12- 24hours old. The main environmental pressure that caused the Turkey Vulture to have strong smell is because of their prey doesn't have an obvious smell to attract animals to find them. If the Turkey Vulture doesn't have a strong sense of smell, they won't be able to find meals as their only talent to find carrions are based on their sense of smell.
 * __Adaptation 1- Bald Head:__**
 * [[image:http://readreidread.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/vulture1.jpg width="267" height="353"]] ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 115%;">The head of a Turkey Vulture. ||
 * __Adaptation 2- Vomiting:__**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 115%;">[[image:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3215/5822954152_49ec8cc699.jpg]] ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 115%;">A turkey Vulture vomiting after having a large amount of food. ||
 * __Adaptation 3- Smell:__**

The Turkey Vultures urine directly on its legs, this is not because they are lazy, but because of thermoregulation. There are two main purposes in this case. During warm days, the Turkey Vultures use the evaporation of the water to cool their body temperature down, as they don’t sweat like human beings. Secondly, the Turkey Vulture’s urine contains strong acids from the vulture’s digestive system and it helps kill any bacteria that remain on the vulture’s legs from stepping in the carrion when eating. The hot environment of where the Turkey Vultures are living is one of the main reason why they need thermoregulation. The Turkey Vulture lives in a hot environment, but it doesn't know how to release heat from their body as they don't know how to sweat, the only to keep their temperature cool is to urine directly at their legs.
 * __Adaptation 4- Thermoregulation__**

The Turkey Vultures have a very terrific and strong digestive system. It can kill any bacteria or disease from the carrion they eat. It was proven by scientist that The Turkey Vultures play an extremely important role to human. They are a big part of the nature’s “cleaner”. The Turkey Vultures eats the bodies of the dead animals. Without the Turkey Vultures, the dead animals might cause dangerous and serious diseases to spread over the world. The environmental pressure that cause them have strong digestive system is based on their main food they eat which are the carrions. There are a large amount of diseases found in carrions. Without the digestive system, the Turkey Vulture will have a high chance of suffering from the diseases and cause to death.
 * __Adaptation 5- Digestive system__**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Links: "Kern Valley Vulture Watch - Vulture Facts." //Nature Alley by Nature Ali - Bringing Nature to the Citizens of Kern County//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].

"Turkey Vulture." //Audubon Sharon//. Web. 25 June 2011. <http://sharon.audubon.org/plant_animal/TurkeyVulture.htm>. []

"Turkey Vulture, Life History, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology." //Your Online Guide to Birds and Bird Watching, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].

"Fairfax County Public Schools - Report File Not Found." //FCPS Home Page Redirect Page//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].

Bora, Chandramita. "Turkey Vulture Facts." //Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web//. Web. 25 June 2011. [].