The bearded vulture is a large bird of prey that can reach up to three meters in wingspan and is one of the largest flying birds in the world. The head and neck have almost no feathers, only some slender hairs, like whiskers, hence the name bearded vulture. Their beaks are very strong and can easily peck through the animal's ** and bones, and their stomachs are also very strong enough to digest all kinds of rotten food, even bones.
Bearded vultures are mainly found in some mountainous areas of Africa and Asia, and they prefer to inhabit forests, mountain bare rocks, alpine meadows, steppes, deserts and other places at an altitude of 500-6000 meters. They are the only birds in the world that feed on bones, mainly living on carrion, which objectively prevents the epidemic of grassland infectious diseases, and also earns them the reputation of "medicine king birds", and is a veritable "scavenger" in the ecological chain.
Bearded vultures are amazing in their ability to fly, they can use air currents to glide through the air without having to flap their wings frequently, saving a lot of energy. They can fly very high and can even fly over Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world at 8,848 meters above sea level. They can also fly very long distances, covering a range of hundreds of kilometers in a single flight, looking for clues to food. They usually detect their prey visually, but they can also rely on their sense of smell and hearing, and can also follow other scavengers, such as hyenas and wolverines, to find the carcasses.
Although bearded vultures have no natural predators, they face many threats to their survival. First of all, their reproductive survival rate is quite low, they generally only breed once every two years, only one egg at a time, the incubation period is as long as two months, and the young birds have to stay in the nest for half a year before they can learn to fly, during which time they need to be carefully cared for by their parents. Secondly, their food ** has also been affected, due to human activities, the number of wild animals in the grassland has decreased, resulting in the scarcity of animal corpses, and at the same time, some people will smear poison on the carcasses in order to prevent the attack of domestic animal ** eaters, which will indirectly kill the scavenging bearded vultures. Thirdly, their habitat has also been destroyed, and due to human exploitation and agricultural expansion, grasslands and forests have been shrinking, and the space for bearded vultures has also decreased.
Bearded vultures are a very precious animal that plays an important role in the ecosystem, they can clean up dead animals, prevent the spread of diseases, and maintain the balance of the grasslands. However, their numbers are declining and they are listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which is a national first-class protected animal. We should respect and protect these grassland scavengers and let them fly freely in the city in the sky.
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