Old World vulture

Old World vultures are special birds found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They belong to a big family of birds called Accipitridae, which also includes eagles, buzzards, kites, and hawks. These birds are very good at finding food from far away because of their extremely sensitive sense of smell. Unlike many other birds, Old World vultures do not hunt live animals; instead, they eat animals that have already passed away. This helps keep the environment clean by removing dead animals and preventing diseases. Their role in nature is very important for keeping ecosystems healthy.

Taxonomy

Old World vultures are not closely related to the New World vultures and condors. They do not have the same strong sense of smell as New World vultures. The similarities between these two groups of vultures happened because of convergent evolution, not because they are closely related.

These birds were found in both the Old World and North America during the Neogene period. They belong to two different groups within the family Accipitridae, which also includes eagles and hawks. One group is called Gypaetinae and includes Gypaetus, Gypohierax, and Neophron. The other group is Aegypiinae and includes Aegypius, Gyps, Sarcogyps, Torgos, Trigonoceps, and possibly Necrosyrtes.

Even though they are called "Old World" vultures, they lived in North America until the end of the Late Pleistocene epoch, about 11,000 years ago.

Biology

Old World vultures and New World vultures are special kinds of birds that eat dead animals. They find food by looking with their eyes. Many of these vultures have heads with very few feathers. Scientists used to think this was because their feathers got stuck with rotting meat. But we now know it helps them stay cool. Whether they have feathers or not doesn’t change how they find food.

Species

† = extinct

Subfamily	Genus	Common and binomial names	Image	Range
Gypaetinae	Gypaetus	Bearded vulture (Lammergeier) Gypaetus barbatus		High mountains in southern Europe, the Caucasus, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Tibet
	Gypohierax	Palm-nut vulture Gypohierax angolensis		Forests and savannahs across sub-Saharan Africa
	Neophron	Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus		Southwestern Europe and North Africa to India
	†Neophrontops			Native to North America during the Late Pleistocene
	†Neogyps			Native to North America during the Late Pleistocene
Aegypiinae	Aegypius	Cinereous vulture Aegypius monachus		Southwestern and central Europe, Turkey, the central Middle East, northern India and central and eastern Asia
		†Aegypius jinniushanensis		Formerly China
		†Aegypius prepyrenaicus		Formerly Spain
	Gyps	Griffon vulture Gyps fulvus		Mountains in southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia
		White-rumped vulture Gyps bengalensis		Northern and central India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia
		Rüppell's vulture Gyps rueppelli		The Sahel region of Central Africa
		Indian vulture Gyps indicus		Central and peninsular India
		Slender-billed vulture Gyps tenuirostris		The Sub-Himalayan regions of India and into Southeast Asia
		Himalayan vulture Gyps himalayensis		The Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau
		White-backed vulture Gyps africanus		Savannahs of West and East Africa
		Cape vulture Gyps coprotheres		Southern Africa
	Necrosyrtes	Hooded vulture Necrosyrtes monachus		Sub-Saharan Africa
	Sarcogyps	Red-headed vulture Sarcogyps calvus		The Indian subcontinent, with small disjunct populations in Southeast Asia
	Torgos	Lappet-faced vulture Torgos tracheliotos		Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sinai and Negev deserts and northwestern Saudi Arabia
	Trigonoceps	White-headed vulture Trigonoceps occipitalis		Sub-Saharan Africa, formerly native to Indonesia during the Late Pleistocene
	†Cryptogyps			Native to Australia during the Middle or Late Pleistocene

Population declines, threats, and implications

More than half of the Old World vulture species are considered at risk by the IUCN Red List. Their numbers are falling because of different dangers, with big drops happening in Asia due to a medicine called diclofenac. In Africa, poisonings and the use of vultures for traditional practices have caused about 90% of their population to disappear. Because vultures eat dead animals, when their numbers go down, it can cause problems for people and nature.

One big danger is diclofenac, a medicine given to farm animals that harms vultures when they eat the animals. This has caused vulture numbers to drop by up to 99% in places like India and Pakistan. Another danger comes from poisoned animal remains, often put out by people trying to hide illegal activities. Vultures also face risks from eating animals poisoned by farmers to protect their livestock, and from being used in traditional medicine. These threats have serious effects, like health problems from rotting animal remains and cultural impacts on communities that depend on vultures.

Conservation efforts

Conservation efforts work best in large, protected areas where vultures live in large groups. Small, frequent poisonings hurt vulture populations more than big, rare poisonings because vultures need time to recover. One way to help vultures is to bring them back to safe, poisoning-free areas near other vulture groups. This helps keep their numbers up, even after a poisoning happens.

In Nepal, a project called "Vulture Restaurant" is helping save vultures. This is an open grassy area where naturally dying, sick, and old cows are fed to the vultures. Organizations in Africa are also working to protect vultures by changing rules and policies. They suggest using mobile phones to report people who poison vultures, running campaigns to teach about the risks of poisoning, and quick actions when poisonings happen. Training people to respond to poisonings quickly is very important because poisoning is a big threat to vultures.