By Jim Knox
I scanned the rugged ridgelines of South Africa’s Drakensberg Mountains for the creature I’d hoped to spot. As we ascended the mountain road toward the fabled Sani Pass, marking the border of Lesotho, Africa’s Kingdom in the Sky, we journeyed deeper into their home range. Accounting for the erratic bounce of our SUV tackling the unpaved and rutted track, I locked my gaze on the verdant face of the Twelve Apostles. This iconic ridgeline of the Drakenberg or Dragon’s Mountains, marks the unofficial gate to the Great Escarpment encompassing the central South African Plateau. It also marks the range of one of the planet’s most remarkable residents. After a particularly long look, I was rewarded by a small black dot, flying more than a thousand feet aloft and nearly a mile away. As we climbed higher, the creature flew over the valley affording me just enough of a view to confirm its identity.
The Lammergeier, or Bearded Vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is a creature that is not quite what it seems. With its Latin name meaning, “bearded vulture-eagle”, the Lammergeier is a creature of varying origins and appearance. Though it is distantly related to the Egyptian Vulture, as the only member of its genus, the Lammergeier is unique. With lengths reaching four feet, wingspans exceeding nine feet and weights topping 17 pounds, it is among the world’s largest birds of prey!
With a gray-blue back, cream-colored breast, and forehead with a bold black band across the eyes, the Lammergeier is distinctively marked. Bristle-like feathers under the bird’s chin, give the bird a beardlike appearance, hence its English name. Sporting varying orange or rust-colored plumage on their head, legs, and breasts, Lammergeiers are hard to miss. This coloration is believed to come from iron-rich dustbathing, mud-rubbing, and drinking in mineral-saturated waters.
While the vast majority of the world’s wildlife consume plants, meat, or both, the Lammergeier is among select few species that target a most unusual food source. Passing over the carcass for the skeleton within, these specialists engage in the rare practice of osteophagy, or bone eating! Why bones? Well, bone marrow is nutrient dense, conferring a wealth of fats and minerals to those creatures resourceful and persistent enough to access the nutrients locked within. Though it seldom preys on living creatures, it has the physical adaptations to dismantle a carcass and a most unusual and efficient strategy for feeding.
The German origin of the word, Lammergeier, meaning “Lamb Vulture,” reflects the belief that these massive vultures preyed upon lambs. Its ancient name, Ossifrage, means “Bone Breaker.” While it’s true Lammergeiers will prey upon small and mid-sized mammals—and the occasional hapless tortoise, they feed almost exclusively by scavenging bones from carcasses. This is where the Bearded Vulture excels. Biting clear through bones up to the size of lamb femurs, the Lammergeier’s robust head, neck and torso are designed to facilitate snapping and crushing. Yet, the Lammergeier can do more than snap up a lamb bone. Selecting bones of up to 4 inches in diameter and up to nine pounds in weight (nearly the bird’s own weight), the Bearded Vulture targets larger meals. By flying more than 500 feet aloft, these giant birds will drop their marrow-laden treasure on the rocks below, opening them up for the feast within. For smaller bones, the Lammergeier exhibits a rare ability in the animal kingdom—tool use. By smashing these bones against rocks, these intelligent birds access the most nutrition from each bone, and the most success from each opportunity.
A bird of true wilderness and the world’s most remote mountain ranges, the Bearded Vulture can be found in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres and above tree line across the planet’s highest peaks. From the Alps to the Pyrenees, and from the Caucasus to the Himalayas, and even Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains, the Lammergeier reigns above all.
Unusual among vultures in possessing a fully feathered head, the Lammergeier doesn’t’ probe carcasses like its naked-headed cousins. Yet it still cleans up the remains of dead creatures and avalanche-chute mammals to remove disease from the landscape. Possessing some of the most powerful stomach acids in the animal kingdom, the Lammergeier rapidly dissolves even thick bone fragments and digests their contents.
With a worldwide population estimated at no more than 10,000 individuals by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the big bird with the larger-than-life reputation needs our help. And such help would be an investment for the health of all. Make no bones about it, when it comes to tackling disease, in the “Bone Breaker,” Mother Nature gave us the answer ages ago.
Jim Knox serves as the Curator of Education for Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo and as a Science Adviser to The Bruce Museum. A Member of The Explorers Club, Jim enjoys sharing his passion for wildlife conservation with audiences in Connecticut and beyond.
