Bearded Vulture

The bearded vulture was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the vultures and condors in the genus Vultur and coined the binomial name Vultur barbatus. Linnaeus based his account on the "bearded vulture" that had been described and illustrated in 1750 by the English naturalist George Edwards. Edwards had based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been collected at Santa Cruz near the town of Oran in Algeria. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Africa, but in 1914 this was restricted to Santa Cruz by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert.

The bearded vulture is now the only species placed in the genus Gypaetus that was introduced in 1784 by the German naturalist Gottlieb Storr. The genus name Gypaetus is from Ancient Greek gypaietos, a corrupt form of hypaietos meaning "eagle" or "vulture". The specific epithet barbatus is Latin meaning "bearded" (from barba, "beard"). The name "lammergeier" originates from the German word Lämmergeier, which means "lamb-vulture". The name stems from the belief that it attacked lambs.

The vulture have chests, heads and legs are especially impressive, colored the rich red brown of polished mahogany. They deserve much of the credit for their fashion sense. These vultures turn their feathers red on purpose, covering themselves in iron oxide by bathing in rusty water or rubbing themselves with damp red soil. They are the only birds known to intentionally color themselves, and exactly why they do is still not entirely settled.

The old world vultures depend on sight to find food, and can see dead animals from a distance of up to two kilometers. Vultures have the strongest gastric acid in the Animal Kingdom. With a pH of just over 0, it's stronger than battery acid AND 100 times stronger than ours (pH 2). The powerful "gizzard gravy" kills any anthrax, botulism, and other bacteria the birds swallow feeding from carcasses.

The acid concentration in the bearded vulture's stomach has been estimated to be of pH about 1. Large bones are digested in about 24 hours, aided by slow mixing or churning of the stomach content. The high fat content of bone marrow makes the net energy value of bone almost as good as that of muscle, even if bone is less completely digested. A skeleton left on a mountain will dehydrate and become protected from bacterial degradation, and the bearded vulture can return to consume the remainder of a carcass even months after the soft parts have been consumed by other animals, larvae, and bacteria.

Lammergeiers eat almost exclusively bones – the last remnants of the meals of other scavengers. Bones from anything smaller than a sheep they can eat whole. They’ll fly larger ones high into the air and drop them onto rocks over and over again until they break up into swallowable pieces. 

Bones are cleaner than the blood and guts preferred by other vultures. (Lammergeiers have feathery heads, instead of bald ones like some of their cousins, because they don’t have to stick their faces inside gory carcasses.) But they’re still covered in bacteria, which are there doing their own jobs as decomposers.

One theory holds that the birds’ iron oxide dye kills harmful microbes, keeping vulture parents from slopping them all over their nests. The vultures have been seen rubbing their ruddy chest feathers on their eggs, perhaps to pass on some of this protection. 

You might spot these scavengers cruising along the tops of mountain ridges or to and from their cliff-ledge nests. From below, look for their thick diamond-shaped tails and rust-colored underparts.

Coming soon

Others think the coloring is a cosmetic strategy. When two lammergeiers want the same bones, they’ll square off, puffing up their feathers and swinging their heads around. A bird’s redness might indicate her fitness – her knowledge of the local iron sources, and the strength and spare time to really paint herself up. A darker-red vulture may intimidate a lighter colored one enough that he leaves, avoiding a fight. 

The idea that red is a particularly impressive color to these vultures is supported by another of their adornments: bright red bands around their eyes called scleral rings. When the situation calls, they can concentrate blood in those rings to make them extra big and bright – dyeing themselves from both inside and outside. 

Vultures have evolved to eat dead animals and have no reason to attack a live human or pet. However, if cornered or handled, they may bite or vomit. 

The lammergeier lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in Iran, southern Europe, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus. Females lay one or two eggs in mid-winter that hatch at the beginning of spring.

Efforts to reintroduce the bearded vulture began in the 1970s in the French Alps. Zoologists Paul Geroudet and Gilbert Amigues attempted to release vultures that had been captured in Afghanistan, but this approach proved unsuccessful: it was too difficult to capture the vultures in the first place, and too many died in transport on their way to France.

A second attempt was made in 1987, using a technique called "hacking", in which young individuals (from 90 to 100 days) from zoological parks would be taken from the nest and placed in a protected area in the Alps. As they were still unable to fly at that age, the chicks were hand-fed by humans until the birds learned to fly and were able to reach food without human assistance. This method has proven more successful, with over 200 birds released in the Alps from 1987 to 2015, and a bearded vulture population has reestablished itself in the Alps

• Movement Pattern: Not a Migrant

• Individual Type: Solo

• Population Trend: Decreasing

• Population: 

  • Earth: 1,675-6,700

  • Berbania: 700,000-1,000,000

  • Reinachos: ???

  • Thatrollwa: ???

• Locomotion: none

• Habitat: Montane Grasslands and Shrublands; Temperate Coniferous Forests; Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests; Temperate Deciduous Forests; Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Subtropical Coniferous Forests; Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands; Salt Flats; Stone Forest; Tropical Coniferous Forests; Tropical Moist Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Dry Broadleaf Forests; Tropical Grasslands; Tropical Savannas and Shrublands; Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub; Mushroom Forests; Mushroom Fields; Deserts and Xeric Shrublands; Badlands; Flooded Grasslands and Savannas; Swamp; Bayous/Billabongs; Riparian; Wetland; Mangrove Forest; Cold Bamboo Forests; Tropical Bamboo Forests; Air-breathing Coral Reefs; Graveyard Vale; Mountain; Sky; Volcano; Warm Ghost Town; Cold Ghost Town; Ruined Skyscraper.

• Earth: 

  • Extant (Resident): Afghanistan; Andorra; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Bhutan; China; Egypt; Eritrea; Ethiopia; France; Georgia; Greece; India; Iran; Iraq; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Lesotho; Mongolia; Morocco; Nepal; Pakistan; Russia (European Russia, Central Asian Russia); South Africa; Spain; Sudan; Tajikistan; Tanzania; Turkmenistan; Türkiye; Uganda; Uzbekistan; Yemen

  • Possibly Extant (Resident): Algeria; Djibouti

  • Possibly Extinct: Saudi Arabia

  • Extinct: Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Liechtenstein; Montenegro; North Macedonia; Serbia; Syrian Arab Republic

  • Extant & Reintroduced (Resident): Austria; Italy

  • Extant & Reintroduced (Non-breeding): Switzerland

  • Extant & Vagrant (Non-breeding): Croatia; Cyprus; Czechia; Germany; Israel; North Korea; Lebanon; Mozambique; Namibia; Portugal; Romania; Somalia; Zimbabwe

  • Extant & Vagrant: Jordan

  • Extinct & Vagrant: Mauritania; Palestine

• Berbania/Hirawhassa: none

• Reinachos/Ityosel: none

• Thatrollwa: none

• Sawintir: none

• Agarathos: none

To tame a vulture, the survivor must steal its egg. The offspring of these eggs must be fed any kind of milk, which can be obtained from a number of sources, once they hatch. All vulture species are immediately domesticated when they hatch from an egg because the survivor is always within 12 radii of the hatching egg. If the vulture isn't already tamed, it can be tamed using a carcass or rotten flesh. 

To put it briefly, no, vultures cannot be kept as pets. Nonetheless, there are numerous opportunities to engage with vultures up close. Look for a nearby wildlife facility where you can help with a non-releasable vulture. Or, if you have a genuine love for animals, consider going into rehabilitation yourself. If you are a member of Assassin Order or Templar Knight, you are prohibited from taking, possessing, importing, exporting, transporting, selling, buying, bartering, or offering for sale, buying, or bartering any migratory bird without a federal permission.

The Greek playwright Aeschylus was said to have been killed in 456 or 455 BC by a tortoise dropped by an eagle who mistook his bald head for a stone. If this incident did occur, the bearded vulture is a likely candidate for the "eagle" in this story.

In the Old Testament, the bearded vulture, as the ossifrage, is among the birds forbidden to be eaten (Leviticus 11:13).

Past and Present Incidents - Individuals

• Terran/Gaian

  • n/a

• Berbanian/Hirawhassan

  • n/a

• Reinachos/Ityoselese

  • n/a

• Delphian/Thatrollwan

  • n/a

• Sawintiran

  • n/a 

• Jotunheim

  • n/a

The Recollections of Queen Arianna - Individuals

• Terran/Gaian

  • n/a

• Berbanian/Hirawhassan

  • n/a

• Reinachos/Ityoselese

  • n/a

• Delphian/Thatrollwan

  • n/a

• Sawintiran

  • n/a

• Jotunheim

  • n/a

See also: none

Earth

• Afrikaans: Baardaasvoël

• aragonés: Trencauesos

• العربية: نسر ملتحي

• Asturianu: Frangüesu

• Azərbaycanca: Toğlugötürən

• Беларуская: Барадач

• Български: Брадат лешояд

• Brezhoneg: Guperer

• Català: Trencalòs

• Čeština: Orlosup bradatý

• Deutsch: Bartgeier

• Ελληνικά: Γυπαετός

• English: Bearded Vulture

• Esperanto: Ŝafgrifo

• español: Quebrantahuesos

• فارسی: هما (پرنده)

• suomi: Partakorppikotka

• français: Gypaète barbu

• galego: Quebraosos

• עברית: פֶּרֶס

• Hrvatski: Kostoberina

• Magyar: Szakállas saskeselyű

• հայերեն: Գառնանգղ

• Ido: Gipaeto

• Italiano: Gipeto

• 日本語: ヒゲワシ

• ქართული: ბატკანძერი

• 한국어: 수염수리

• Nederlands: Lammergier

• Norsk: Lammegribb

• Polski: Orłosęp brodaty

• Português: Abutre barbudo

• Russian: Бородач

• Slovenščina: Brkati ser

• Српски/Srpski: Жутоглави брадаш

• Svenska: Lammgam

• தமிழ்: எலும்புண்ணிக் கழுகு

• Türkçe: Kara kuş

• українська: Ягнятник

• 中文: 胡兀鷲

• Coming soon

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearded_vulture

• https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gypaetus_barbatus

• https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/bearded-vulture

• https://ebird.org/species/lammer1?siteLanguage=en_PH