Vultures on the prowl in the Port of Bonaigua

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Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
13 October 2023 Friday 16:48
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Vultures on the prowl in the Port of Bonaigua

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

I am sharing in Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia these three photographs taken in Port de la Bonaigua, in the region of Pallars Sobirà. We can see the birds attracted by the death of a horse and that circle its corpse to be able to eat.

Vultures are birds of prey that tend to feed especially on dead animals. They are snapshots captured of a live flock, without any type of editing.

As seen in the images, a particular characteristic of many vultures is their bare, featherless head. One hypothesis is that if they sported plumage on this part of their body, they would get stained with blood and other fluids when they feed and it would be difficult to keep their heads clean.

In years as hot as this one, they have a mechanism that relieves them, since they have the habit of adhering to their legs when they are hot a substance product of the combination of their feces and urine that helps them moderate their body temperature, since they lack sweat glands.

Vultures can see large dead animals, or spot each other, at distances of several kilometers. In this case, it was the horse's turn to end up pecked.