It is the holiday time of year--time for family gatherings, decorations, and of course home cooking
The variety of food that graces our human tables is nothing compared to the wide variety of food that gets served to the birds, particularly the vultures. The vultures get everything and anything we have to offer, like day-old chicks, rabbit, venison, rats, mice, fish, quail and pigeon.
You may be familiar with the Turkey Vulture, commonly seen soaring the Missouri skies in the summer searching for carrion
In the wild vultures can handle meat that has been lying around for many days. In fact they are drawn to the wonderful aromas of a road kill or a predator’s leftovers. The joys of a vulture also include a strong stomach acid, which can digest a meal no matter what diseases the animal might have died from (we only serve fresh, non-diseased food at WBS, but I’m sure our vultures could still eat rotten meat if it came down to it).
A black vulture--most likely to be seen in the southern part of Missouri
Enrichment improves and enhances the lives of our vultures and encourages them to explore their surroundings. Consequently, feeding a wide variety of items, usually with skin, fur and feathers still attached, is great enrichment for our vultures and simulates what they would be feasting on in the wild. Vultures can be tough to enrich, so we present them with novel objects and smells. We can alleviate boredom by stimulating their complex feeding behaviors. As vultures are gregarious, many will gather at a feeding site (including when we feed our turkey vultures).
Dorothy, an Andean Condor, benefits from being fed a varied diet
If you stop by to visit with our vultures on the display line, you may find them feasting on the bounty of donated game from hunters and road killed deer from MODOT (Missouri Department of Transportation) this holiday season. If you are lucky, you might observe one or more of these birds partaking of venison fresh off the bone.
The wild Turkey Vultures on top of the enclosure are hoping to steal a free meal from our resident Turkey Vultures
Hopefully this will keep the birds active and interested in their environment, but also encourage visitors to ask questions to further their interest and learning of this amazing bird’s unique needs and habits.
Submitted by Christina Lavallee, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist
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