Turkey vultures

Fun facts about turkey vultures that I read tonight:

-- They are known for sleeping late.

"The vulture is a late riser, seldom being seen on the wing until an hour after sunrise."

-- They play games.

"They enjoy playing games. Almost every evening when they return to the roost there will be about half an hour of follow-the-leader, tag, and speed soaring, if the winds are favorable."

One lady noticed that vultures had gone down to the lawn in her yard, and six of them were in a circle around a soccer-size ball left on the lawn by her grandchildren. The vultures were hitting the ball back and forth to each other by butting it with their head and beak. Each day thereafter they played this game. And although there were four balls of different colors, they always picked the orange one. "

-- They love people.

"Many of the roosts are located near human habitation. There can be the same kind of trees a half mile away in a field, but for their home the birds will pick a tree near people. They seem to like the warmth of human company."

"When a Turkey Vulture is injured and taken into rehab he will become emotionally attached to his handler and follow him around and watch him, much like a pet dog. They love to bring an object to a person and then play tug-of-war."

"In the wild or open country a Turkey Vulture will sometimes become attached to a person. A lady in -- Southern California wrote that she and her husband would drive their car five miles from town and take a daily walk in the country with their dog. A Turkey Vulture would join them, soaring above and watching them. And then one day at home she broke a leg and the walks were not possible for a while. One day she was in her back yard on crutches and there was her Turkey Vulture sitting on the fence, waiting to say hello. He had found her in a town of 12,000 people!

In another case it was reported by a person who had studied Turkey Vultures for many years that one would wait every morning for his son, a young school boy, to come out of his house. The vulture would follow the boy several blocks to the school bus stop and then wait on top of a telephone pole until the boy got on the bus. In the afternoon the bird would be back on the pole waiting for the boy's return, and then follow him home."

-- They do not kill prey.
"Extremely unagressive and non-confrontational, the Turkey vulture will not feed on live prey, an occasional habit of its cousin the black vulture. "

-- Up to 50% of their diet is plants.
A recent study of almost 400 pellets collected in the Castro Valley and Livermore areas in California showed that plant material was the single most common ingredient of the Turkey Vulture's diet. It occurred to some amount in more than 80% of the pellets examined and represented a mean of 25% of the total dried weight. The material consisted primarily of grass and leaves. Animal food items in the pellets included the: shrew, mole, squirrel, gopher, mouse, rat, rabbit, bird, reptile, insect, muskrat, opossum, racoon, skunk, badger, and coyote.

-- The Turkey Vulture's digestive system has the unique ability to kill any virus and bacteria in the food the bird eats.

-- They are tightly connected to the calendar.
Of those that migrate, many will head south with the Autumnal Equinox and return in the spring on the Vernal Equinox, quite often on the exact day. On one occasion in the spring, a returning roost of 75 birds was observed flying for two days into a strong storm with rain, snow, and 40 mph head-winds. They arrived at their roost on the exact day of the Vernal Equinox.

-- They have egalitarian gender roles.

Both parents share the responsibilities of incubating and caring for young

-- Vulture poop is actually a sanitizer! Their uric acid is so strong (because of the nature of their diets) that it kills bacteria.
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-- The oldest known turkey vulture, Tolouse, is 33 years old, and lives at the San Francisco Zoo.