King Vulture
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| Sarcorhamphus papa (Linnaeus, 1758) |
The King Vulture or American King Vulture, Sarcoramphus papa, is the most strikingly colored of the New World vultures.
It is native to tropical lowland forests; its range extends from southern Mexico to southern Argentina, and it can be found at heights up to up to 1200 m.
The King Vulture has a yellow fleshy crest (wattle) on its bill, and the bare skin of its head is yellow and red. Its plumage is black and grey, but it has pink and yellow tinges. The eyes are straw-coloured in the adult. It is about 80 cm long. There is little sexual dimorphism: males and females have no difference in plumage and little in size. Usually only one egg is laid, and both parents incubate. Chicks have brown plumage, and do not acquire adult coloration until about 18 months of age.
In the hieroglyphics of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, the King Vulture stands for K'ib' (Cib), the 16th day of the 20-day "month" in the Maya calendar.
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[edit] Behavior
In terms of behavior, King Vultures are typical vultures. They feed on carrion, and soar looking for prey, but may also use olfaction to help locate it; however some authors claim that they rely on Turkey Vultures and Condors to sniff out prey, and simply follow them to carcasses. Large groups may gather at a suitable carcass. At a carcass, the King Vulture is dominant over other species, but its greater strength means that it will often open carcasses that others are then able to exploit.
[edit] Systematics
Apparently, the genus Sarcorhamphus, which today contains only this species, had a wider distribution in the past. The Kern Vulture (Sarcoramphus kernense) from the Middle Pliocene of SW North America is not well documented and the single fossil humerus known is all but indistinguishable from the King Vulture save by their "greater size and robustness" (Miller, 1931); the large difference in time suggests it might be distinct though and as the fossil is somewhat damaged and rather non-diagnostic, even assignment to genus is not completely certain (Fisher, 1944). During the Late Pleistocene, a species probably assignable to the genus occurred in Peru (Sarcoramphus fisheri), but the supposed King Vulture from Cuba has turned out to be remains of the giant eagle Titanohierax borrasi (Suárez, 2001).
[edit] Bartram's "Painted Vulture"
There has been much speculation about the "Painted Vulture" (Sarcorhamphus sacra or S. papa sacra), a bird described from William Bartram's notes of his travels in Florida during the 1770s. The notes were considerably altered and expanded in the printed edition, possibly by an editor who had seen images of the King Vulture and believed the bird briefly and equivocally described by Bartram to be this species, fleshing out details as he saw fit.
Several researchers have tried to prove the former existence of a King Vulture relative in Florida at this late date, suggesting the population was in the process of extinction and finally disappeared during a cold spell (e.g. Day, 1981). However, Bartram met with his "Painted Vulture" in the area from which later the Northern Crested Caracara was described. This bird was common and conspicuous in Bartram's days, but it is strangely missing from Bartram's notes if the "Painted Vulture" is accepted as a Sarcoramphus.
While the original notes are somewhat ambiguous regarding the appearance of the bird, they do fit a caracara. The birds' behavior as recorded by Bartram is in complete agreement with the caracara's. For example, Bartram observed the birds following wildfires to scavenge for burned insects and box turtles. Such behavior is typical of caracaras, but the large and short-legged King Vultures are not at all well adapted for walking around. That Bartram cannot have missed the caracara but does not mention it is the most damning piece of evidence, however.
 King Vulture at Zoologischer Garten Berlin |
 Close-up view of a King Vulture, showing the bird's wattle |
 King Vulture buries its beak in the sand and pivots around it. |
[edit] References
- Day, David (1981): The Doomsday Book of Animals: Ebury, London/Viking, New York. ISBN 0-670-27987-0
- Fisher, Harvey L. (1944): The skulls of the Cathartid vultures. Condor 46: 272-296. PDF fulltext
- Miller, Loye H. (1931): Bird Remains from the Kern River Pliocene of California. Condor 33(2): 70-72. PDF fulltext
- Suárez, William (2001): A Reevaluation of Some Fossils Identified as Vultures (Aves: Vulturidae) from Quaternary Cave Deposits of Cuba. Caribb. J. Sci. 37(1-2): 110-111. PDF fulltext
