What do vultures eat ?

The basis of food is carrion of all kinds, including dead reptiles, fish, insects and other invertebrates. Sometimes vultures eat fruit. In some places they search the landfills to find something edible, sometimes they take with them the remains of human food and even human feces. Vultures are absolutely not afraid of human closeness and in some African villages often sit on the roofs of huts or on trees growing in the middle of the villages.

One of the features of this bird is how it eats the contents of ostrich eggs. To break a hard shell, vultures use stones weighing up to 500 g. These stones they sometimes find quite far from the ostrich’s nests and fly with a stone in the beak to the nest. After that they start throwing a rock on the egg until it breaks. After several unsuccessful attempts with a stone that is too light, vultures arrive with a new, heavier one. This behavior is an unequivocal example of the use of tools in animals. The liquid contents of the egg or the already developed embryo vultures eat right on the spot.

Vultures are very social animals and live in small groups. In savannas, they are often found only in pairs. In the carrion they are in most cases the last ones that get any pieces.

Nesting vultures on the rocks at different heights and as nests they serve as small holes, holes or caves. They also like to nest under the canopy of the rock, which protects them from precipitation. Nests in relation to the size of the vultures are quite large and produce a chaotic impression, especially as the vultures between the branches, serving as building material, willingly weave the garbage left by the man. Often you can see in the nest bone, paper, rope fibers. The bottom of the nest vultures are lined with soft materials and animal hair. The remains of food produced by both parents (mostly carrion) lie in the nest until rotting is complete. Deferred two eggs with a few brown spots hatch by both parents for 42 days. After 80 days after birth, young chicks begin to fly.