Guardians of our health and our environment

Each vulture has its own favourite dish

Five different species of vultures occur in Europe. They specialise in various carcass remains. Since the Rüppell’s vulture, an African species which crossed into Europe only a few years ago, has so far only become firmly established in Spain and is similar to the griffon vulture in its biology, it is not included in the following list.

• Bearded Vulture

  

  Europe's largest vulture is the bearded vulture. It specialises in bone marrow. Its unusually large oral fissure and special oesophagus help it eat even large bones, and the extremely low pH of its stomach acid facilitates digestion. If bones are too big, the bearded vulture drops them from a great height until they shatter. It also does this with tortoises, at least in the Mediterranean; one of the few examples of vultures hunting living species. The idea that the bearded vulture kills lambs has earned it the name Lammergeier, lambing vulture, but this belongs firmly to the realm of alpine myths. 

• Cinereous Vulture

  

  Only slightly smaller than the bearded vulture is the Cinereous Vulture. With its powerful beak, it is the vulture for the gristly stuff, specialising in eating skin, tendons and cartilage. Unlike the other European vulture species, Cinereous Vulture breed mainly in trees, and so are endangered by the clearing of large old nest trees. A dense ruff of feathers surrounds their neck, which is vaguely reminiscent of the collar of a monk's habit. Hence the German name monk or cowl vulture.

• Griffon vulture

  

  A long, sparsely feathered neck is a characteristic feature of the griffon vulture, the most common representative of the vultures in Europe. The birds use it to push into the carcass, often via the anal opening. Otherwise, the griffon vulture is also able to tear open the abdominal wall of the dead animal with its beak. It prefers to eat the muscle tissue, innards and soft parts of the carrion. Within the often large flocks of griffon vultures at a carcass, there is a strict hierarchy, but they often have to give way to other scavengers such as jackals or the larger black vultures.

• Egyptian Vulture

  

  Although very flexible in its choice of food, the Egyptian Vulture is the most endangered vulture species in Europe, with recent dramatic population declines. It is the only vulture that uses tools, mainly in the form of stones, to break the eggs of other birds. This type of foraging is important for the Egyptian vulture, because it is the last in the queue at the carcass and eats what the others have left behind. It is also the only vulture in Europe to fly south in autumn to spend the cold season in Africa. Conservation measures therefore also need to include the resting and wintering areas.