An international team of scientists reveals in a new study that the abandonment of traditional livestock farming activities, such as transhumance, could be detrimental to scavenger communities. This activity has configured landscape across the world and has created ecosystems, which have benefited a great number of animal and plant species, including vultures. The research work has been carried out by scientists at the University of Granada, the Miguel Hernández University, the Doñana...

A study led by the Doñana Biological Station analyzes the patterns of power lines use by Canarian Egyptian vultures. The researchers have fitted 49 individuals with GPS-devices. This accounted for around 20% of the total population size of this endangered species. ? The study concludes that the patterns use of pylons by large body-size avian scavengers depend on individual- and environmental-based drivers, such as the patial distribution of food resources and anthropisation.

The data have been obtained from the long-term monitoring programs of six populations of Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) from Spain and France. The study makes it possible to advance in the knowledge of the natal dispersal of long-lived territorial birds, such as the Egyptian vulture.
The median dispersal distance was 48 km, while there were cases of movement longer than 500 km to settle as breeders. In addition, it was detected that females and males followed different...

It is well-established that plumage colours are important for avian visual communication and are used to signal social information. Yet, little is known about the ability of birds to modify the expression of plumage colours with exogenous materials after feather development, a phenomenon also known as avian cosmetics. The deliberate staining of feathers with red soil in a social signalling context has so far only been described in the Bearded vulture. Here, for the first time feather painting...

The monitoring of an experimental feeding station established in northern Spain allowed the evaluation of how this type of resource, predictable in space but not in time, was exploited by a guild of avian scavengers in relation to factors such as season, hour of disposal and presence of the dominant species.