Research: The vulture also grooves as it gets older

When young can handle swinging. In old age, familiar people and surroundings are pleasant.

This is how things are on average with humans and apparently also with vultures, says the new one research In Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences.

Researchers followed the activities of the griffon vultures living in Israel for more than a decade and came to the conclusion that the vulture also ruts as it ages.

It regularly hangs out with a few of its old friends at an old familiar feeder, holds a parliament there and visits the younger wingmen.

Goose vulture is a large, white-headed scavenger whose wingspan can be just under three meters.

Griffon vultures live in colonies and gather around carcasses when one is found. They even spend days at the food places. From these market gatherings, even a newcomer can conclude that there is something to eat here.

Monitoring of a total of 142 birds for up to 12 years showed that the older vultures knew the good standard places and sought them out.

The younger birds frolicked around and avoided the most popular market gatherings. Perhaps they were worried about the pecking order.

In the world of griffon vultures, five years old is young and ten years old is already old. That’s how the researchers classified it, even though a bird can live up to thirty in the wild.

After ten years, however, it was seen that the operating models had already become somewhat ossified. At this age, the birds also preferred to hang out mainly with their old acquaintances, and did not look for newer friends.

Trains have to find their place further away in the world. If necessary, even from Pieksämäki. This was experienced in the summer of 2023when a single griffon vulture flew from its Mediterranean homeland all the way to Northern Savo.

At one time, this bird wondered about its life on the hump next to the highway leading to Jyväskylä and stated that there are at least no future prospects for it here.