edit: I can’t change the photo above but this vulture needs a spelling lesson. It’s LAMMERGEIER. :)
WORD… International Vulture Appreciation Day 2016 has come and gone, but it’s never too late to celebrate and educate people on vultures! Here’s a reblorb from last year when I tossed on a mask to celebrate. This isn’t a “furry thing”– this is an attention grab because boy howdy do you even know how wicked SICK bearded vultures are? How do you make someone stop and read about lammergeiers? Well, dress up like one, of course.
Wait, actually, all vultures are really rad (do you want to get to know a few more of the species? Here is a silly but informative Buzzfeed quiz to help you get to know your inner vulture). After that, head over here and learn some sweet facts about vultures that will make you sound really smart and entertain your friends when you spout them off. Like, did you know that a species of vulture is the highest flying animal? Click that link and HAVE THE LEARNINGS.
Anyway yeah, bearded vultures (Lammergeiers), you guys. Okay well first of all just look at them:
First of all, just by looking you know this dude is metal AF. What makes their appearance even more amazing is that these guys dye their feathers on purpose. They use cosmetics, which is pretty unheard of / unknown in wildlife. These guys find iron-rich clay deposits and rub themselves all over that sweet makeup to make the feather beautiful. This is why mature birds range in color from yellow, to orange, to red. While scientists aren’t sure about all the nuances of why they do this, studies suggest that it has to do with status. Bearded Vultures have a diet that is around 90% bones. You heard me, BONES.
These BAMFs feed on the part of the carcass that most other critters leave behind: The bones (beware, skeleton army). If a bone is too large to swallow whole, these birds will fly up quite high over a rocky area, outcropping, or other hard surface, and drop the bones from great height to crack them. They will repeat this behavior as many times as possible until the jagged, broken bones can be swallowed whole. Since their stomachs have a pH of between 0.5-1, the acid takes care of the rest. Not enough badass in one bird for you? Well these guys are also big… like, pretty huge. They can have a wingspan of more than 9 feet.
“Oh hey don’t mind me, I just have a glorious giant dragon bird on my arm”
Some photos of my kenku costume at Anthrocon 2016, taken by @adammillerstudio! Oh boy did I ever have a lot of fun! The other raven in these photos is @qawstume and the snowy owl we are mobbing is @crystumes, who made both of the blanks that we used for our masks.
