On day four, we were just over half way into our six day visit to the Giant’s Castle vulture hide. We had seen many fly-bys by the fledged juveniles and adult Bearded vultures. At times the fly-bys were far away in the middle of the Bushman’s river valley. At other times they were way above the hide and at other times the juveniles and adults flew close to the valley floor.

“… there’s a silent voice in the wilderness that we hear only when no one else is around. When you go far, far beyond, out across the netherlands of the Known, the din of human static slowly fades away, over and out.” ~ Rob Schultheis

There were many occasions when the juvenile and adult Bearded vultures flew very close and had a good look at what was the on the terrace in front of the hide. Not once during the first three days in the hide did we see a Bearded vulture land on the terrace or the rocks at the edge of the terrace in front of the hide, despite many good looks at the available food.

We had frequent visits from Jackal Buzzards where they landed and spent quite a while feeding on the meat on the bones that we had put out on the terrace. We also had fly-bys from a lone Yellow billed kite, a Lanner falcon and a Rock kestrel. The latter landed on the rocks close to the hide but never tried to feed on the meat, marrow and fat on the bones as they feed mainly on insects, small rodents and reptiles. We saw many lizards on the rocks and I am sure there must have been many rodents attracted by the meat and fat on the bones.

“Wildness is more a quality than a place, and though humans can’t manufacture it, they can nourish and husband it…” ~ Michael Pollan

At last, on our fourth morning after a landing by a Jackal Buzzard, we saw a young adult Bearded vulture flying in the Bushman’s river valley. It flew progressively closer and from just above the far edge of the feeding terrace in front of the hide this Bearded vulture looked to be approaching the terrace on “finals”. Helen was my spotter and she called the species, direction, and elevation. Helen called out “adult Bearded vulture at 2 O’ clock approaching from deep in the valley”. With great excitement we got ready for a possible landing. With their wings at full span this vulture is three times its body size. This is a critical estimate to prevent clipping its open wings in the image.

There were so many times that we thought a Bearded vulture was on “finals” to land, only to veer off and fly on by along the ridge. The thrill of watching this massive vulture coming in to land was huge. This was one of the sightings we were hoping for. The other was to see a mid-air courtship display but it was the wrong time of the year for that.

Little did we know, in our initial excitement, that this young adult Bearded vulture would stay at the far end of the terrace from the hide for about 45 minutes. Roberts Bird Guide has a Bearded vulture aging chart which shows the progression in head feather colours from black to white with age. Its body feathers change from a mottled brown, black and white to white, which over time, through dust bathing, becomes a strained rich rust-orange colour. This young adult Bearded vulture looked to be around six years old.

For a while this Bearded vulture walked around the far end of the terrace collecting bones. Some of the bones had a small amount of meat and fat on them.

Bearded vultures are uniquely specialised to live on a diet of bones and bone marrow. This Bearded vulture picked up a large bone with its beak, tilted its head back and began to progressively swallow this huge bone. Its esophagus is highly elastic and the walls of the esophagus are thicker than those of other vultures, which prevent potential internal injury from bones with jagged edges. (Source: Bone Dropping Bearded Vulture, Reed College, Biology 342 Fall 2012 by Ivy Hellickson).

“Much of human behaviour can be explained by watching the wild beasts around us. They are constantly teaching us things about ourselves and the way of the universe, but most people are too blind to watch and listen.” ~ Suzy Kassem

Bearded vultures are known to be able to swallow bones as long as 25cm. This vulture lacks a large crop but has an unusually large stomach and intestine. Its stomach acid has a ph of less than one. This high degree of acidity enables this species to break down large chunks of bone within 24 hours.

If the bone is too large to swallow, Bearded vultures pick up the large bone either with their beak or talons and fly above large open flat rocks called ossuaries then drop the bone from a height of up to 60 metres. The drop usually shatters the bones into smaller pieces which enables them to swallowable size. The long strong tongue enables this vulture to access the hollow centre of the bone to extract the nutritious marrow. The Bearded vulture diet comprises between 85% and 90% bones.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

The vulture hide was built with a view to feeding the Bearded vultures with bones under controlled conditions. The increased population pressure and changing rural farming practices have reduced wildlife and stock mortalities and so shrunk the size of this vulture’s feeding ground. The bones provided by Giant’s Castle staff as part of the hide booking provide the necessary supplementary food which is poison and pharmaceutical free

We watched this adult Bearded vulture swallow two large bones before taking off from the far end of the terrace. The next image shows the huge bulge in its chest due to the bones.

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

This vulture is not a carrion eater like other vultures but is capable cutting through ligaments and removing bones from a carcass with its large strong beak with a sharp tip. It was such a privilege to watch this species swallowing bones.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Vulture Conservation Foundation research showed a 27% reduction in breeding range and 20% reduction in breeding densities between the first study period (1960 to 1999) and the second study period (2000 to 2020). The adult vultures prefer open grasslands and avoid forested areas and built up rural and urban areas. In southern Africa, much of the breeding range reduction had taken place away from the eastern Cape and Lesotho resulting in an isolated population concentrated in the Drakensberg-Maluti mountains.

Projectvulture.org.za estimates that only about 350 individual Bearded vultures and 100 breeding pairs remain in southern Africa and are now considered critically endangered. The global Bearded vulture population has been classified in the IUCN Red List as near threatened since 2014. Today, the Bearded vulture lives and breeds on crags in high mountains in southern Europe, southern Africa, East Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, and the Caucasus.

The Bearded vulture is a magnificent raptor because of its size, plumage and unique physiology. This species’ role in ensuring biodiversity is unique and necessary and so has a special place in the conservation efforts.

“Most people are on the world, not in it — have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them — undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.” ~ John Muir

It was interesting to visit the hide outside the breeding season where we saw more landings than during breeding season (June to August). In the last post from our six day experience in the Bearded vulture hide, I show some unusual behaviour by Bearded vultures that we have never seen before.

Explore, seek to understand, marvel at its interconnectedness and le it be.

Have fun, Mike