Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.
BLACK VULTURE Coragyps atratus
The Black Vulture, with his ugly naked head and sinister appearance isn´t top of most people´s "favourite bird list" but where would be without him? Black Vultures are nature´s garbage men, scavenging on dead animals and generally cleaning up the environment. Amazingly vultures are immune to the various bacteria that accumulate in putrid flesh and doctors have even studied their physiology to see how humans can overcome the effects of food-poisoning bacteria such as botulism, salmonella and streptococcus. They have a well-developed sense of smell, enabling them to home-in on rotting flesh from a great distance - apparently the stench really whets their appetite!
FIGURE 1 - Adult, Bahía Negra (Paul Smith September 2006).
FIGURE 2 - Adult, Bahía Negra (Paul Smith September 2006).
FIGURE 3 - Adult, Zoologico Juan XXIII, Departamento Itapúa (Paul Smith June 2007).
FIGURE 4 - Same individual face on  (Paul Smith June 2007).
FIGURE 5 - Adult doing something very strange! Laguna Bombacha, Departamento Presidente Hayes (Paul Smith October 2007).
FIGURE 6 - Adult in flight, PROCOSARA, PN San Rafael (Sylvia Qu May 2008 - ECOSARA Biodiversity Database)
VIDEO - Same individuals as Fig 1 & 2 (Paul Smith September 2006).
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