Gyps
| Gyps | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Falconiformes (or Accipitriformes, q.v.) |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Gyps Savigny, 1809 |
| Species | |
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See text. | |
The Gyps vultures are a genus of Old World vultures in the bird family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards and hawks.
These are the typical vultures, with bald head, broad wings and mainly dark plumage. They are large scavenging birds, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight. Representatives of this group are found throughout warmer parts of the Old World.
Compared to other vultures, Gyps species have quite feathered heads, with characteristic downy covers. Indeed, rather than being an adaptation for scavenging as once thought, it seems to be related to thermoregulation, and Gyps vultures have annecdotally been recorded attacking living animals such as cows.[1]
Species
- White-backed Vulture, Gyps africanus
- White-rumped Vulture, Gyps bengalensis
- Cape Griffon, Gyps coprotheres
- Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus
- Himalayan Vulture Gyps himalayensis
- Indian Vulture, Gyps indicus - formerly Long-billed Vulture
- Rüppell's Vulture, Gyps rueppellii
- Slender-billed Vulture, Gyps tenuirostris - formerly included in G. indicus
A prehistoric species is known only from fossil remains found in Middle to Late Pleistocene sites all over the central and eastern Mediterranean: Gyps melitensis. Recently, a fossil species Gyps bochenskii has been described from the late Pliocene in Bulgaria[2]
References
- ↑ (Ward et al. 2008)
- ↑ Boev, Z. 2010. Gyps bochenskii sp. n. (Aves: Falconiformes) from the Late Pliocene of Varshets (NW Bulgaria). – Acta zoologica bulgarica, 62 (2): 211-242.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gyps. |
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