Vultures: the house keepers of wild France.
As I started out a couple of days ago to go and check on the progress of an Egyptian vulture (Vautour percnoptère) nesting site, just five minutes up the road I came across a massive fly over of maybe 100 Griffon vultures (Vautour fauve), circling and drifting with very little effort in the bright sun of late afternoon. If you live or visit the mountainous or hilly half of southern France, looking sky wards you will have noticed these enormous birds, often in groups or training across the sky following one another. Outside of migration periods, they are the only raptor that will be seen in large numbers together.
There are four Old World vulture species in Europe; the others are the Black vulture( Vautour Moine)and Bearded vulture (Gypaète barbu).
The history
of the vulture re-colonisation in France is
a success story. The stronghold of vultures in Europe is Spain, where the
population thrived as a result of the intensive pig rearing, which led to
many carcasses being thrown on muladares dumps. Diseases
and then BSE ‘Mad cow disease’ in 2002 led to stricter legislation on carcass dumping.
For some years the vulture populations suffered dramatic losses due to food
shortage, until legislation came into force allowing a controlled disposal. Feeding stations were set up on farmers’ land
so that they could dispose of carcasses easily and
without charge. In the Aude there are 23 farmer's feeding stations, and a public observation point near to the village of Bugarach where vultures may be seen regularly.
It has been wonderful to see how in these times of decline and disappearing wildlife the dedication and perseverance of a small team, spearheaded by one man, has led to so much rewarding resurgence.
They were seen back in France after being persecuted to extinction throughout the 20th century. At first there was distrust amongst the farming/hunting community, who believed that they would predate on livestock, and rumours to this effect circulated.
In reality a vulture will never attack a healthy living prey, they are simply not equipped with strong beaks and talons capable of inflicting damage, unlike a Golden eagle. Only in 3% of cases is the animal targeted not completely dead before the vultures gather to scavenge. Through an awareness programs spearheaded by the LPO their presence is totally accepted here in the Aude; in some of other French departments there remains work to do. Very occasionally these magnificent birds are still shot, but the biggest threat is from poisoning from scavenging on carcasses that have been deliberately laced with poison aimed at other scavengers, like foxes for instance.
The most common is the Griffon vulture, 98% of the time it will be this that you see. Wing span of up to 2.65 metres, they are most easily recognised by their short tails, brown and black wings – and the very ergonomic flight, gliding and only flapping their wings when they have to. They nest, and feed, in groups; the photo below shows that occasionally the feeding can be a frenzied affair, with up to 150 birds present. Even though it looks like an chaotic rugby scrum, no-one gets hurt, there is a lot of bluster and jockeying for position and the chance to feed.
A lot of the time you might see individual birds gliding high in the sky, actually moving from one hot-air thermal to the next. If one bird spots a carcass it will circle and begin to descend to inspect, and other birds will be drawn in from far away, like the drawstring of a net. In a matter of a few minutes large numbers will appear as if from nowhere.
In the photo above at the back on the left the white head of a black vulture can be seen. This species is even slightly larger still than the griffons, and is much rarer. The LPO is in the process of setting up an exciting project here in the Aude with the aim to stimulate nesting of wild birds by relocating a sterile couple from a zoo into a very large aviary; they will go through the motions of building a nest, laying an egg and attempting to hatch it; watched by wild birds the hope is that in time they too will be attracted into nesting nearby. This method has been successful in the past.
Finally, the most beautiful and extraordinary, the Bearded vulture. This is the famed ‘Bone-breaker’, known for their ability to gather the bones of a dead animal and, after breaking them into pieces to swallow and absorb not only the marrow within but the bones themselves. Having located a suitable scree slope they will drop the bones from height and spiral down to pick up the pieces. It is said that enzymes in their stomachs is acidic enough to etch glass!
The orange colouring on the neck and legs is in fact cosmetic, obtained by bathing in ferrous-oxide pools. Perhaps as a treatment against bacteria, perhaps just for show, normally the females are more brightly coloured than the males. The same size as the Griffons, it has a much more elegant flight, longer wings, a wedge-tail and startling red eye-ring when seen close-up. It is a fragile nester, easily disturbed; we have not had a successful nest for two years now.
Evolution has worked that these four species work together to dispose of a potential pollution hazard, each consuming slightly different parts of the carcass. The powerful Black vulture will open through the skin, the Griffons eat mostly soft tissue, the Egyptian will clean smaller scraps and the Bearded the skeleton. We are lucky to have them.
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