Details
Gypaetus barbatus
A huge mountain vulture with a specialized bone diet, often dropping bones onto rocks to break them.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
Lives in high mountains, dry gorges, cliffs, and rocky grasslands, nesting on large undisturbed cliff faces.
Long narrow wings, a wedge-shaped tail, and dark beard-like facial feathers are distinctive. The underparts may be stained orange by iron-rich soil.
It glides over broad mountain ranges searching for bones and carrion. Large bones may be dropped from the air onto rocks.
Bones and marrow form most of the diet. Hard fragments are swallowed and digested by powerful stomach acids.
Large nests are placed on cliff ledges, with breeding starting in winter or early spring. Pairs use very large home ranges.
Poisoning, lead ammunition, collisions with wires or turbines, and changes in carrion availability keep it near-threatened.
