The best network in Africa!

The best network in Africa is owned by…….? Not who you would think. It is the vultures who have the best communication system and its all in the air. Vultures have the best network in Africa. There was a notable case where a vulture tagged in the morning at Pilanesberg National Park was found late afternoon on a carcass in the Kruger park. A distance of 500km and more. How did he show up? Let me tell you these guys are exploring Africa by air.

How the network works is simple. Each vulture keeps track of the ground underneath for feeding opportunities and also keeps track of his buddies up to 5 km around him. So each individual has a radius of about 10 km around him or her. Its like a tic-tac-toe grid that each vulture is in the middle of. So his neighbours keep track of him and he does that same for them. So when one drops down to look at something better, soon the neighbours realize that he has moved and as one moves downwards the neighbours start and …. You guessed it, their neighbours and so on and on and on. So when 1 vulture drops down fast it is seen by all the vultures through the relay system and in no time the word is out. Nothing is seen yet on site, till out of a clear sky you have 100s of vultures in a matter of a few hours perched around near a carcass waiting for the lions to finish so they can dig in. Its incredible how this happens in such a short time when you cant even see 1 vulture at the outset.

On a rare occasion a vulture will spot a carcass in a tree left unattended by the leopard who put it there and sure enough they will latch on to it and eat it right there. In ancient times hunting tribes would look for circling vultures and head to the area in the hopes of getting a portion of a meal.

The vulture also has special eyes that can see very far and also very clearly. They can reportedly spot a mouse from thousands of feet in the air. Their eyes have two foveas with special nerves in the cornea that enable them to do this despite sunlight being so strong up in the air. So these guys are built for long distance and close up zoom. The amazing thing for me is how each vulture eats a different part of the carcass so all get their share. Some eat the flesh, some eat the organs, some eat the sinew especially, and of course the Lammergeier, or Bearded Vulture is the champ, he eats the bone and marrow. They take the bones up into the air sometimes hundreds of feet and then drop it on rocks below. The smashed bone is now in jagged shapes that they can actually swallow whole and digest completely. It looks like it could tear the skin in the throat open but they are immune to that happening. Pretty amazing how it comes together perfectly in Nature. COME ON SAFARI WITh US AND HAVE YOUR OWN AMAZING STORIES TO TELL - www.dreadlionsafaris.com