When Does a Vulture Leave Its Mother?

Old and New World Vultures

• There are two main categories of vultures: Old World vultures and New World vultures. Old World vultures inhabit Africa, Asia and Europe; New World vultures inhabit the Americas. Unlike the Old World vultures, which are true birds of prey, New World vultures are primarily carrion feeders. Another difference is that Old World vultures have voice boxes, unlike New World vultures, which are capable only of making hissing and grunting noises.

Stages of Life

• Vultures mate for life, and each couple attempts to raise one clutch a year. Some vulture species become sexually mature within a year of birth, while others can be 8 years of age before they are ready to start producing clutches. Usually one to three chicks incubate for five to eight weeks, depending on the species. They fledge at about three months. An adult palm-nut vulture, the smallest species, weights 4 lbs., while the Andean condor is the heaviest vulture, weighing up to 33 lbs.

Diet

• Vultures hunt in flocks called kettles and have a varied diet depending on the resources available to them. New World vultures such as the turkey vulture feed on carrion such as skunk, rabbit or any other unguarded carcass. Old World vultures such as the Egyptian vulture drop rocks onto ostrich eggs to crack them open. In Africa, when large groups of vultures gather to feed on a carcass, the larger birds feed first and the smaller birds wait until the larger ones are finished to feed.

Preservation Efforts

• The larger vultures such as the California and Andean condors produce only one chick every two years; as such, they struggle to return to safe numbers. Since the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was put into place, making it illegal to kill them, there are many conservation efforts to help create optimal environmental conditions to increase survival rates of chicks.