As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

In an urban environment, not all vultures are created equal

Date:October 21, 2015

Source:Central Ornithology Publication Office

Not being picky about your food means you can live just about anywhere, and some vultures are good at adapting to landscape fragmentation caused by humans, but new research forthcoming in The Condor: Ornithological Applications shows that different vulture species use city environments in different ways. 

The city of Manaus, Brazil, is home to two species--the gregarious Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) and the shyer, more solitary Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)--and their presence has lead to a variety of problems, from the nuisance that results from vultures congregating around dumpsters to the serious hazard of bird-aircraft collisions. To learn more about how these two vultures navigate the urban landscape and to help manage potential human-vulture conflicts, Weber Novaes and Renato Cintra of Brazil's Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia made repeated visits to 80 sites around the city to record how many vultures were present, which type they were, and what might be attracting them.

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