White-backed Vulture
| White-backed Vulture | |
|---|---|
 | |
| White-backed vulture in Etosha National Park, Namibia | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Accipitriformes |
| Family: | Accipitridae |
| Genus: | Gyps |
| Species: | G. africanus |
| Binomial name | |
| Gyps africanus Salvadori, 1865 | |
The White-backed Vulture (Gyps africanus) is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, kites, buzzards and hawks. It is closely related to the European Griffon Vulture, G. fulvus. Sometimes it is called African White-backed Vulture to distinguish it from the Oriental White-backed Vulture—nowadays usually called White-rumped Vulture—to which it was formerly believed to be closely related.
The White-backed Vulture is a typical vulture, with only down feathers on the head and neck, very broad wings and short tail feathers. It has a white neck ruff. The adult’s whitish back contrasts with the otherwise dark plumage. Juveniles are largely dark. This is a medium-sized vulture; its body mass is 4.2 to 7.2 kilograms (9.3–15.9 lb), it is 78 to 98 cm (31 to 39 in) long and has a 1.96 to 2.25 m (6 to 7 ft) wingspan.[2][3][4]
Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of animals which it finds by soaring over savannah. It also takes scraps from human habitations. It often moves in flocks. It breeds in trees on the savannah of west and east Africa, laying one egg. The population is mostly resident.
As it is rarer than previously believed, its conservation status was reassessed from Least Concern to Near Threatened in the 2007 IUCN Red List.[5] In 2012 it was further uplisted to Endangered.[6] In 2013 it is further uplisted to Critically Endangered.[7]
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Mature White-backed Vulture
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Egg
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Adult
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Eating a dead wildebeest
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In flight
Footnotes
- ↑ IUCN Red List 2012.
- ↑ "White-backed vulture videos, photos and facts - Gyps africanus". ARKive. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
- ↑ Raptors of the World by Ferguson-Lees, Christie, Franklin, Mead & Burton. Houghton Mifflin (2001), ISBN 0-618-12762-3
- ↑ "African White-backed Vulture". Oiseaux-birds. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
- ↑ See BirdLife International (2007a. b).
- ↑ "Recently recategorised species". Birdlife International (2012). Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ "15 bird species in India in critically endangered list". The Hindu. Retrieved 26 Nov 2013.
References
- BirdLife International (2012). "Gyps africanus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- BirdLife International (2007a): 2006-2007 Red List status changes. Retrieved 2007-AUG-26.
- BirdLife International (2007b): White-backed Vulture - BirdLife Species Factsheet. Retrieved 2007-AUG-26.
- Gill, F & D Donsker (Eds). 2013. IOC World Bird Names (v 3.3) www.worldbirdnames.org Taxonomy of raptors
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gyps africanus. |
- African White-backed Vulture videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- White-backed Vulture - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.
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