scavenger – Animals for Sam

Sam, I understand why you love large predatory birds. This is the second vulture I’ve researched/drawn and they are very cool. The Griffon Vulture is an “Old World” vulture, which means they can’t smell their prey/food. They use their seven to nine foot wingspan, to soar high above looking for a carcass/meal. Since their beaks are weak/different and not meant for opening up the flesh of animals, they depend on other predators or larger vultures to begin the work of opening up the animal. But once that happens, they go to town and gorge themselves on up to 13 pounds of meat. Let me explain how much meat/food that is:

Competitive food eaters like Joey Chestnut, who holds a few records for eating large quantities in short time periods, like 191 buffalo wings in 12 minutes (7.61 pounds of wings). The Big Texan steakhouse has a steak that is 72 – 86 oz or around 5 lbs. of meat. A regular cheeseburger from McDonald’s is an eighth of a pound. A Quarter Pounder with Cheese, is yes: a quarter pound of meat. SOOOO, to equal what the Griffon Vulture eats in a sitting, you’d have to eat around 30 Quarter Pounders. And then fly away.

Lemme tell you something: If you ate 30 Q.P. with Cheese, your next stop is the hospital for an exploded spleen.

love this gal.

If there was ever a cooking game show where you had to use the grossest imaginable ingredients to make a meal for your peers, the Egyptian Vulture would win. They would win for a few reasons:

They are opportunistic and will pretty much each whatever crosses it’s path. WHATEVER crosses it’s path. Do you understand WHATEVER? Are you ready to hear this? Prepare yourself. Ready? Ok. Scraps of dead carcasses, rotten fruit or vegetables, small animals (preferable weak or injured), insects, eggs, and poo. Yes. I said, “poo.” Animal and/or human poo.
They use tools to eat. For instance, they are flying around and spot a delicious ostrich egg. They’ll drop a rock on it to break the shell, so they can eat what’s inside (and it ain’t jellybeans. . .)
They watch out for other vultures to clue them into where food is. They let the other birds/animals do all the hard work in killing the meal and then just wait until everyone is done eating, swoop in, and voila! Dinner is served.