Old World vulture

Old World vultures
Lappet-faced Vultures (left) and a White-backed Vulture
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Falconiformes Family: Accipitridae Subfamily: Aegypiinae Gypaetinae<br?> Lerner and Mindell 2005
Genera
See text.

Old World vultures is the common designation for various large birds within the family Accipitridae, characterized by a head with few or no feathers, the lack of a perforate nasal septum, keen sight, good soaring ability, a poor sense of smell, and generally by scavenging behavior, feeding primarily on carrion. Old World vultures only comprise part of the family: Accipitridae also includes eagles, buzzards, kites, and hawks.

Old World vultures belong to a different family than the superficially similar New World vultures (family Cathartidae]], which share a similar featherless head, large size, good sight, scavenging behavior, and good soaring ability. However, these two groups are not considered to be closely related genetically and often are even placed in different orders, with New World vultures placed in Ciconiiformes with storks and Old World vultures in Falconiformes. Old World vultures lack the good sense of smell of some of the New World vultures and are limited to finding carcasses by sight.

Overview and description

Accipitridae,the family of birds to which the Old World vultures belong, is one of the two major families within the order Falconiformes, the diurnal birds of prey. In addition to Old World vultures, many well-known birds like hawks, eagles, kites, and harriers are included in this group. Most, but not all, other raptors belong to the Falconidae, or falcon family. The Falconidae often is considered a distinct order (e.g. in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy), in which case Accipitridae is considered to be belong to the order Accipitriformes.

The accipitrids are a family of small to large birds with strongly hooked bills and in some species there is a notch or "tooth" in the upper mandible. In all accipitrids, the base of the upper mandible is covered by a fleshy membrane called the cere which is usually yellow in color. Accipitrids have a variable morphology based on diet, and feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-sized mammals, with a number feeding on carrion and a few feeding on fruit. There are about 65 genera and 231 extant species recognized in Accipitridae (Lerner and Mindell 2005).

Old World vultures are a diverse group within Accipitridae, with 14 to 16 extant species divided into 9 or 10 genera. The Old World vultures are variously grouped together in their own subfamily Aegypiinae, or divided into two subfamilies, Aegypiinae and Gypaetinae (Lerner and Mindell 2005; Lerner 2007), or placed in the same subfamily, Accipitrinae, as almost all members of the Accipitridae family (ITIS 2008).

Old World vultures largely are scavenging birds, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals. One species, however, is potentially frugivorous, the palmnut vulture (Gypohierax angolensis), which eats the nut of the oil palm, although it also eats dead fish. One species uses tools, the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus), which employs small rocks to crack thick-shelled ostrich eggs by lifting a stone with its beak and hitting the egg in a strong swing of head and neck. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight, unlike some of the species of New World vultures that have a keen sense of smell.

Old World vultures are characterized by a featherless or nearly featherless head, which is thought to be an adaptation to eating carrion, with the lack of feathers preventing blood and food from sticking and bacteria from the carrion ruining its feathers, while also exposing the skin to the sterilizing effects of the sun.

Old World vultures lack a perforate nasal septum, a feature that is characteristic of the New World vultures. That is, the nasal passage of the Old World vultures is divided by a septum, whereas in New World vultures the lack of a septum allows one to see through the beak from one side to the other (Allaby 1992).

Some species of vulture are very susceptible to diclofenac poisoning, which causes the birds to suffer from renal failure and death, and this had caused a very marked decrease in wild vulture populations in the Asian subcontinent, where diclofenac used for farm animals has directly led to poisoning of vultures. Often farm animal carcases containing diclofenac in their flesh are left out in to open for vultures to eat and tidy up. Meloxicam has been found to be harmless to vultures and should prove an acceptable alternative to diclofenac.

Classification

Lerner and Mindell (2005), based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA studies, concluded that the Old World vultures do not form a monophyletic group, but are are probably a polyphyletic group within Accipitridae, with two separate clades, Aegypiinae and Gypaetinae.

Species

Genus Aegypius

• Eurasian Black Vulture or Monk Vulture, Aegypius monachus

Genus Gypaetus

• Lammergeier or Bearded Vulture, Gypaetus barbatus

Genus Gypohierax

• Palm-nut Vulture, Gypohierax angolensis

Genus Gyps

• Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus
• Indian White-rumped Vulture, Gyps bengalensis
• Rüppell's Vulture, Gyps rueppelli
• Long-billed Vulture Gyps indicus
• Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris
• Himalayan Griffon Vulture Gyps himalayensis
• White-backed Vulture, Gyps africanus
• Cape Griffon, Gyps coprotheres

Genus Necrosyrtes

• Hooded Vulture, Necrosyrtes monachus

Genus Neophron

• Egyptian Vulture, Neophron percnopterus

Genus Sarcogyps

• Red-headed Vulture, Sarcogyps calvus

Genus Torgos

• Lappet-faced Vulture, Torgos tracheliotus

Genus Trigonoceps

• White-headed Vulture, Trigonoceps occipitalis

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Allaby, M. 1992. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Zoology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192860933.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hlerner/LM2005.pdf Lerner, H. R. L, and D. P. Mindell. 2005 .

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=175280 Accipitridae Accipitridae Taxonomic Serial No.: 175280

Molecular Phylogenetics of Diurnal Birds of Prey in the Avian Accipitridae Family By Heather R. L. Lerner 2007 http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:WXqbv9sgV5kJ:deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57684/2/hlerner_1.pdf+Gypaetinae+Aegypiinae&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us&client=firefox-a University of Michigan

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