Vultures (1 Viewer)

[cateyes]

Hello

Is anyone else here interested in vultures? I just had a question. Is there any species of vulture that has talons as powerful or close to as powerful as an eagle?

 

[Desertbirder]

I would have to say that from my experience, Bearded Vulture ( Gypaetus barbatus ) is a classic vulture but uses its talons to carry (relatively) heavy bones and even large turtles high up in the air and then drops them in order to get to the soft parts inside. Besides this, talons are the tool of Eagles, evolution is to blame for this...

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

As mentioned by Desertbirder, the Bearded Vulture may come close. However, having had the peasure (and luck) of seeing Harpy twice, I seriously doubt any vulture have comparable strenght in the talons. The talons of the Condors may come close in terms of size, but they are much weaker than the Harpy's. Again, as said by Desertbirder, evolution is to blame; generally there is no need for a vulture to have such powerful talons. Powerful talons or not, they are still interesting birds...

 

[cateyes]

hello

I was just wondering about lapped faced vultures and asian black vultures thse two vultures are more powerfully built then condors arent they? furthermore out of these two which ones have the more powerful bill and talons? (they facinate me most)

 

[gthang]

Well, this thread seems to be very intriguing.

IMO, the bigger the bird the stronger the bird in certain areas (including talons and bill). So I'd have to say that the Andean condor, would be comparable to a Harpy Eagle. Of course, when it comes to talons and mating rituals, the Osprey is definitely the Most Extreme... (can't help it, that Animal Planet show "The Most Extreme" is stuck in my brain now...) When performin mating rituals, displaying Ospreys fly head on and right before the moment of impact, turn away, and lock talons. At this incredible speed, the Osprey's talons are able to clutch the other's talons as the birds freefall toward the water at high rates of speed. This ritual just fascinates me!

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

IMO, the bigger the bird the stronger the bird in certain areas (including talons and bill). So I'd have to say that the Andean condor, would be comparable to a Harpy Eagle.

Well, not completely... The legs of the Harpy are WAY stronger than the legs of Vultures. The reason is that vultures don't need that strenght. They usually don't use their legs for much else than walking/sitting. The exception being the Bearded Vulture, that may, strengtwise, be in a similar league to the Harpy. For opening a carcass, vultures generally use their beaks. Harpy's need their massive claws for "plucking" monkeys and sloths out of the canopy. It should also be mentioned than dealing with live prey obviously requires much more strenght than "just" eating things that are already death or weakened. Hence, the talons of a Harpy are much more powerful, the claws actually being comparable in size to the claws of an American Grizzley Bear! It should be mentioned that female Harpys are much larger (and more powerful) than males. Strenght-wise, the only raptors that may come close to the Harpy are two other massive eagles; Steller's Sea-eagle from Asia, and the Crowned Hawk-eagle from Africa. The Secretarybird would also be "up there" in terms of strenght (they kill their prey with kicks). However, the anatomy of their legs is very different, so perhaps not comparable.

 

[cateyes]

I always thought bearded vultures were not formatable at all since i watched a show whitnessed a griffen vulture chasing off a bunch of bearded vlutures from a kill in the mountains. WHAT made me thinkg that the lapped faced vluture was powerful was the fact that it was able to drive a jackle away from a kill WHILE on the other hand i have seen something as small as a fox drive a condor away from a carcus. IVE ALSo Heaard a lot about black asian vultures in that they seem to be very powerful (loooking) vultures. MAYBE its the beaks of the lapped faced and euro black vultures that make them more powerful?

 

[Rasmus Boegh]

I always thought bearded vultures were not formatable at all since i watched a show whitnessed a griffen vulture chasing off a bunch of bearded vlutures from a kill in the mountains. WHAT made me thinkg that the lapped faced vluture was powerful was the fact that it was able to drive a jackle away from a kill WHILE on the other hand i have seen something as small as a fox drive a condor away from a carcus. IVE ALSo Heaard a lot about black asian vultures in that they seem to be very powerful (loooking) vultures. MAYBE its the beaks of the lapped faced and euro black vultures that make them more powerful?

In Africa the Lappet-faced Vulture is dominant over ALL other vultures. The same can be said about the (Eurasian) Black Vulture in Europe/Asia. This is mainly due to total size (compared to the other vultures), and them generally being particularly aggressive (often downright nasty!). The initial question in this thread (#1) was regarding talons, a thing that isn't of great importance in terms of the dominance at a carcass with several species of vultures attending. As said, this hierarchy is due to total size and aggressiveness. In any case, they certainly are interesting birds :t:

 

[cuckooroller]

One of the other things to be considered in determination of Vulture heirarchy around a kill, and with a certain correlation to overall size, is the mandibular shearing force that the bird can bring to bear on a fresh carrion. For example, unless the carrion is very ripe many times other Eurasian vultures will kind of wait around for an Aegypius to arrive to a thick-skinned carcass as they do not possess the powerful cutting tool of this last Vulture.

 

[cuckooroller]

Strenght-wise, the only raptors that may come close to the Harpy are two other massive eagles; Steller's Sea-eagle from Asia, and the Crowned Hawk-eagle from Africa. The Secretarybird would also be "up there" in terms of strenght (they kill their prey with kicks). However, the anatomy of their legs is very different, so perhaps not comparable.

I guess we should also place Pithecophaga in this elite group as per talon strength!

 

[Michael Frankis]

In terms of killing with kicks . . . not vultures of course, but how about Ostrich and Cassowary? An Ostrich is (reputedly) able to disembowel a Lion with a kick (don't know if there's any evidence for the truth of that!).

Michael

 

[pete woodall]

A couple of thoughts here.

I agree that vultures don't use their feet in capturing prey, but I believe that
in fighting they will lean back and "present claws" to the opposition. Thus
there could be selection for developing large talons - and the Lappet-faced
Vulture is a very large bird!
When considering the large eagles, mention should also be made of the Martial
Eagle of Africa, along with the Crowned Eagle.

Yes, male Ostriches when breeding can be very aggressive. They are said to rip
open humans - don't know about lions. The late Reay Smithers (author of "The mammals of the southern Africn subregion") told me he had been chased by one
and lacking any trees to climb or branches to protect himself with he lay flat on the ground. He was then "stomped" on by the bird but escaped any more serious injury - only a loss of dignity.

Cheers

Pete

 

[gthang]

Does the Martial Eagle know kung-fu?

j/k. Well, thought it was inevitable for a kung-fu joke on Martial Eagles...