King vulture - WikiHQ

The king vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) is a large bird found in Central and South America. It is a member of the New World vulture family Cathartidae. This vulture lives predominantly in tropical lowland forests stretching from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. It is the only surviving member of the genus Sarcoramphus, although fossil members are known.

Large and predominantly white, the king vulture has gray to black ruff, flight, and tail feathers. The head and neck are bald, with the skin color varying, including yellow, orange, blue, purple, and red. The king vulture has a noticeable orange fleshy caruncle on its beak. This vulture is a scavenger and it often makes the initial cut into a fresh carcass. It also displaces smaller New World vulture species from a carcass. King vultures have been known to live for up to 30 years in captivity.

King vultures were popular figures in the Mayan codices as well as in local folklore and medicine. Although currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, they are decreasing in number, due primarily to habitat loss.

Etymology, taxonomy, and systematics

The king vulture was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae as Vultur papa, the type specimen originally collected in Suriname. It was reassigned to the genus Sarcoramphus in 1805 by French zoologist André Marie Constant Duméril. The generic name is a Neo-Latin compound formed from the Greek words (, "flesh", the combining form of which is ) and (, "crooked beak of bird of prey"). The genus name is often misspelled as Sarcorhamphus, improperly retaining the Greek rough breathing despite agglutination with the previous word-element. The bird was also assigned to the genus Gyparchus by Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger in 1841, but this classification is not used in modern literature since Sarcoramphus has priority as the earlier name. The species name is derived from the Latin word "bishop", alluding to the bird's plumage resembling the clothing of one. The king vulture's closest living relative is the Andean condor, Vultur gryphus. Some authors have even put these species in a separate subfamily from the other New World vultures, though most authors consider this subdivision unnecessary. An alternative theory reports that the name is derived from Mayan legends, in which the bird was a king who served as a messenger between humans and the gods. This bird was also known as the "white crow" by the Spanish in Paraguay. It was called in Nahuatl, derived from "collar" and "bird of prey".

The exact systematic placement of the king vulture and the remaining six species of New World vultures remains unclear. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes. The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible. Like other New World vultures, the king vulture has a diploid chromosome number of 80.

Fossil record and evolution

thumb|Sarcoramphus papa skeleton

The genus Sarcoramphus, which today contains only the king vulture, had a wider distribution in the past. The Kern vulture (Sarcoramphus kernense), lived in southwestern North America during the mid-Pliocene (Piacenzian), some 3.5–2.5 million years ago). It was a little-known component of the Blancan/Delmontian faunal stages. The only material is a broken distal humerus fossil, found at Pozo Creek, Kern County, California. As per Loye H. Miller's original description, "[c]ompared with [S. papa] the type conforms in general form and curvature except for its greater size and robustness." A supposed king vulture relative from Quaternary cave deposits in Cuba turned out to be bones of the eagle-sized hawk Buteogallus borrasi (formerly in Titanohierax).

Bartram's "painted vulture"

thumb|upright|[[Eleazar Albin's drawing from 1734, which has sometimes been identified as the "painted vulture"]]

A "painted vulture" ("Sarcoramphus sacra" or "S. papa sacra") is described in William Bartram's notes of his travels in Florida during the 1770s. This bird's description matches the appearance of the king vulture except that it had a white, not black, tail. Bartram describes the bird as being relatively common and even claimed to have collected one.

While most early ornithologists defended Bartram's honesty, Joel Asaph Allen argued that the painted vulture was mythical and that Bartram mixed elements of different species to create this bird. Additionally, William McAtee, noting the tendency of birds to form Floridian subspecies, suggested that the white tail could be a sign that the painted vulture was a subspecies of the king vulture.

Description

thumb|Juvenile and adult in [[Costa Rica]]

Excluding the two species of condors, the king vulture is the largest of the New World vultures. Its overall length ranges from and its wingspan is . Its weight ranges from . An imposing bird, the adult king vulture has predominantly white plumage, which has a slight rose-yellow tinge to it. In stark contrast, the wing coverts, flight feathers, and tail are dark grey to black, as is the prominent thick neck ruff. On the head, the skin is wrinkled and folded, and there is a highly noticeable irregular golden crest attached to the cere above its orange and black bill;

The king vulture has, relative to its size, the largest skull and braincase, and strongest bill, of the New World vultures. It also has gray legs and long, thick claws.

The vulture's head and neck are featherless as an adaptation for hygiene, though there are black bristles on parts of the head; this lack of feathers prevents bacteria from the carrion it eats from ruining its feathers and exposes the skin to the sterilizing effects of the sun.

Dark-plumaged immature birds may be confused with turkey vultures, but soar with flat wings, while the pale-plumaged adults could feasibly be confused with the wood stork, although the latter's long neck and legs allow for easy recognition from afar.

Distribution and habitat

The king vulture inhabits an estimated between southern Mexico and northern Argentina. In South America, it does not live west of the Andes, north-western Colombia and far north-western Venezuela. It primarily inhabits undisturbed tropical lowland forests as well as savannas and grasslands with these forests nearby. It is often seen near swamps or marshy places in the forests. King vultures generally do not live above , although are found in places at altitude east of the Andes, and have been rarely recorded up to

Ecology and behavior

The king vulture soars for hours effortlessly, only flapping its wings infrequently. While in flight, its wings are held flat with slightly raised tips, and from a distance the vulture can appear to be headless while in flight. Its wing beats are deep and strong.right|thumb|Adult at the [[Berlin Zoo]]Despite its size and gaudy coloration, this vulture is quite inconspicuous when it is perched in trees. Groups of up to 12 birds have been observed bathing and drinking in a pool above a waterfall in Belize. One or two birds generally descend to feed on a carcass, although occasionally up to ten or so may gather if there is a significant amount of food. Their lifespan in the wild is unknown.

Breeding

left|thumb|Egg exhibited at [[Brevard Zoo]]

The reproductive behaviour of the king vulture in the wild is poorly known, and much knowledge has been gained from observing birds in captivity, particularly at the Paris Menagerie.

An adult king vulture sexually matures when it is about four or five years old, with females maturing slightly earlier than males. The birds mainly breed during the dry season. In densely forested areas, mammals likely

to be included are many of the abundant sloths (Choloepus/Bradypus) whose combined ranges coincide largely with that of this vulture, but elsewhere it has adapted well to domestic livestock. but a 1991 study demonstrated that the king vulture could find carrion in the forest without the aid of other vultures, suggesting that it locates food using an olfactory sense. The king vulture primarily eats carrion found in the forest, though it is known to venture onto nearby savannas in search of food. Once it has found a carcass, the king vulture displaces the other vultures because of its large size and strong bill. Using its bill to tear, it makes the initial cut in a fresh carcass. This allows the smaller, weaker-beaked vultures, which can not open the hide of a carcass, access to the carcass after the king vulture has fed.

Conservation

right|thumb|[[London Zoo, 2006]]

This bird is a species of least concern to the IUCN, Its glyph is easily distinguishable by the knob on the bird's beak and by the concentric circles that make up the bird's eyes.

Because of its large size and beauty, the king vulture is an attraction at zoos around the world. The king vulture is one of several bird species with an AZA studbook, which is kept by Shelly Collinsworth of the Fort Worth Zoo.

References

External links

King vulture videos on the Internet Bird Collection
King vulture photo gallery (6 photos) Photo-High Res
(for Belize, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua) with RangeMap