Lappet-faced Vulture

About the lappet-faced vulture

The lappet-faced vulture, also called the Nubian vulture, is an Old World vulture in the bird order Accipitriformes, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks — a very different lineage from the New World vultures it superficially resembles, and one that lacks their strong sense of smell. It's the only living member of its genus, Torgos, and its scientific name is Greek for "cartilage-eared vulture." Two subspecies are recognized: the nominate form found throughout Africa, and T. t. negevensis, which looks notably different and is confined to the Arabian Peninsula.

It ranks as the longest and largest-winged vulture across its range, trailing only the closely related cinereous vulture in that respect, even though some co-occurring Gyps vultures — including the Cape vulture and Eurasian griffon — tend to be heavier on average. Body length runs about 95 to 115 cm (37 to 45 in), with a wingspan of 2.5 to 2.9 m (8.2 to 9.5 ft) and a bill up to 10 cm (3.9 in) long, among the largest of any accipitrid. Wild birds of the African subspecies weigh 4.4 to 9.4 kg (9.7 to 20.7 lb), averaging just 6.2 kg (14 lb) in East Africa, while captive Arabian-subspecies birds have weighed considerably more: 6.5 to 9.2 kg (14 to 20 lb) in males and 10.5 to 13.6 kg (23 to 30 lb) in females.

The plumage is blackish above with strongly contrasting white thigh feathers, and the underside ranges from pure white to buff-brown; African birds show brown-lined black feathers on the back, while Arabian birds are dark brown rather than black. Like most vultures, it has a bald head — a trait that keeps feathers from becoming matted with blood and other fluids while feeding — and the bare skin's color varies from reddish in southern Africa to dull pink further north and to pink-and-gray on Arabian birds. In flight, its large, broad wings are held with the leading edges parallel and the wingtips slightly pointed and serrated-looking, distinguishing it from the paler Gyps vultures and the all-dark cinereous vulture.

Behavior and diet

The lappet-faced vulture is a scavenger, locating carrion mostly by sight or by watching the movements of other vultures, though it's also more likely than many African vultures to find carcasses on its own. It is considered the most powerful and aggressive of Africa's vultures, and other species will typically yield a carcass to it. That dominance benefits smaller vultures too, since its powerful bill can tear through the tough hides and heavy muscle of large mammals that other species can't penetrate — though hyenas remain even more efficient at the job, if messier eaters. Lappet-faced vultures often linger at the edges of a feeding crowd, waiting for other vultures to finish before moving in on the remaining skin, tendons, and other coarse tissue. Large carrion, up to elephant-sized, is preferred, since it provides the most food at a single sitting; a full crop can hold up to 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of meat.

More than most true vultures, this species has also been recorded regularly taking freshly killed smaller prey — mammals, birds, and reptiles — some of it roadkill or stolen from other raptors, but some apparently hunted outright; flamingo colonies, young impalas, and guineafowl have all reportedly been targeted. It's believed to hunt from an elevated perch, dropping onto prey to stun it with the impact before tearing it apart with its bill.

The species is largely solitary and does not nest in dense colonies the way many smaller vultures do; a given area of habitat typically holds only one or two nests. Its home range spans at least 8 to 15 km (5.0 to 9.3 mi), and groups of up to 25 to 50 birds can gather at a large carcass or a watering hole, though usually only one to seven show up at any single carcass. Breeding timing varies by region — November through July in the north of its range, year-round in eastern Africa, and May through January in the south. The nest is a large stick platform, 120 to 220 cm (47 to 87 in) across, usually lined with green leaves, animal hair, and skins, and built in the fork or top of an acacia tree 5 to 15 m (16 to 49 ft) off the ground. A clutch holds one or two eggs, incubated by both parents for 54 to 56 days, and chicks fledge at 124 to 135 days old but can stay dependent on their parents for a year or more. The species doesn't typically start breeding until around six years of age.

Range and habitat

The lappet-faced vulture is patchily distributed across much of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, absent from large parts of central and western Africa and declining in other areas. It breeds across a long list of African countries, including Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, among others, and on the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. It also occurs in Gambia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, and several other West and Central African countries, with a single vagrant record from Kuwait.

The species favors dry savannah, thornbush, arid plains, and deserts scattered with trees, along with open mountain slopes, and it turns up from sea level to as high as 4,500 m (14,800 ft). It prefers undisturbed open country with a light scattering of trees and minimal grass cover, though while foraging it will range into denser habitat and even human-inhabited areas, particularly where roadkill draws it in.

Conservation status

The lappet-faced vulture is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. It was uplisted to Endangered in October 2015, and the current assessment by BirdLife International dates from 2019. The world population is estimated at under 9,000 birds.

The species is declining across the Sahel and much of its southern, northern and western African range. It appears stable but scarce in Arabia, and it was lost as a breeding bird in Israel. The declines are almost entirely caused by people: habitat destruction and cultivation, disturbance at nest sites, to which it is especially sensitive, and pesticide baits set out for jackals and other small carnivores. As markets and abattoirs spread, dead cattle are now sold rather than left out, removing a food source.

Poisoning is a serious danger. In Namibia, 86 vultures died after eating cattle carcasses poisoned by farmers who wrongly blamed the birds for killing their stock, and in 2019, 14 lappet-faced vultures were among 537 vultures found dead in northern Botswana after apparently feeding on elephant carcasses that poachers had poisoned. In a rare bright spot, Israel announced its first lappet-faced vulture hatching since 1994 in April 2022.