What kind of creature is the vulture and what is its connotation?

Species name vulture

Chinese alias vulture, American eagle, vulture

Latin scientific name Haliaeetus? White matter? (Linnaeus,? 1766)?

English name \ \' Bald Eagle \'?

Families and genera are divided into birds, eagles, eagles and vultures.

[Edit this paragraph] Biological nomenclature

Vultures' common and scientific names come from the heads of male vultures. Commonly known as "bald head" actually comes from an old English word "piebald", which means "black and white", indicating their white heads, tails and black bodies. Scientific name "Haliaeetus? Haliaeetus in leucocephalus is a new Latin word, meaning "sea eagle" (from ancient Greek haliaetos), while leucocephalus is a Latin word, meaning "white head", which comes from ancient Greek leukos or λ ε υ κ ο, namely "white". This "head".

Appearance characteristics

A large raptor with beautiful appearance and fierce temperament. The mouth and claws are sharp and hooked, and the eyes are sharp. Spread your wings, fight in the sky, and soar in the air, always so heroic and magnificent.

Vultures are sometimes literally translated from English into vultures, which makes people think that vultures have no feathers on their heads like vultures. The vulture is called "vulture" because its head is white. It always covers its neck and shines brightly, which is in sharp contrast with its feather color. From a distance, it often gives people a feeling of "baldness" without feathers, so it is commonly called "vulture". In fact, the name vulture is not scientific, because it is full of feathers and has no baldness. The condor is unique to North America, and it is a large raptor.

Like most predatory birds of prey, the female eagle is bigger than the eagle, and there are many possible reasons. Some biologists believe that the large size of female eagles can make them better protect their nests, eggs and baby eagles. Smaller males are easier to fly, so they can better protect their territory. The wingspan of female vultures is as long as 2.3 meters, while that of male vultures is only 1.8 meters.

The size of vultures varies with age, sex and living area. Young vultures are often bigger than adult vultures because they have long tail feathers and wing feathers. Despite these long feathers, young vultures are not as heavy as adult vultures.

The eyes, iris, mouth and feet of an adult vulture are light yellow, the feathers of its head, neck and tail are white, and the feathers of other parts of its body are dark brown, which is very magnificent. A fully mature vulture is 7 1-96 cm (28-38 cm) long, with a wingspan of 168-244 cm (66-88 cm) and a weight of 3-6.3 kg (6.6- 14 lb).

Young vultures have dark brown feathers; At the age of 4 to 6, the feathers on the head, neck and tail of vultures gradually turn white.

Average life span 15 ~ 20 years, and can live to about 50 years in captivity.

Vision is the most important feeling of vultures. Birds have the best color sense of all animals. The clarity of the vulture's vision, or clarity, is extraordinary, even better than its color vision. The vision of sculpture is three times clearer than that of human beings, which is why we call those with keen eyes "as sharp as eagles". The good eyesight of vultures makes it easier for them to see the hiding place of their prey. Some things are just a beige fur to us, but a vulture can clearly distinguish five squirrels of different colors.

The bald eagle's excellent eyesight is partly due to its big eyes. Condor's eyes are too big, and there is little room for eye muscles to move, so they don't turn. In order to make up for this shortcoming, many neck bones are carved, so the neck can move flexibly. Carving can turn the head 270 degrees-that is, three-quarters of a circle! Like many other birds, vultures have a special layer of eyelids on each eye, called the blink membrane. This eyelid can keep your eyes moist and irritate your eyes. Vultures have prominent brow bones, which makes them look fierce. This kind of protrusion, like the instant film, can protect the carved eye in the scorching sun and also protect it from wind and dust. When the vulture flies down and perches on a tree, the broken branches and branches may bounce up, and the prominent eyebrow bone can protect the eagle's eyes. In addition, the prominent eyebrow bone can also protect the eagle eye from the struggling prey. ?

Vultures' feet are very strong and can be used to kill prey. Their soles are as rough as sandpaper. This helps them catch slippery prey, such as fish or snakes. Compared with their body size, vultures' feet are really big enough-they are 15 cm long! ? Vultures have four toes, three in front and one in the back. There are long, curved claws at the top of toes. These claws are as sharp as knives and are the most powerful weapons of vultures. They are even more dangerous than the hooked beak of this carnivorous bird. The most powerful of these are the hind toes and claws. When a vulture catches its prey, its hind paws will penetrate deeply into the victim's body and pierce important organs, such as the heart or lungs. The arc length of the vulture's hind paw can reach 7 cm -8 cm.

The vulture's skeleton is thin and empty, and the gap is filled with air. Many carved bones are condensed or connected together, so they are particularly strong. This kind of skeleton can hold them well when they fly. The weight of the carved skeleton is less than half the weight of its feathers. The feathers covered by birds are called feather coats, and vultures have a unique feather coat. For an animal that lives by flying, it is very important to keep its feathers intact. Vultures spend a lot of time cleaning and maintaining their feathers every day. That is, finishing feathers. ?

The vulture has a special gland on its tail. When this gland is pressed, it will secrete oily liquid and apply it to feathers. This oil can help keep feathers waterproof and tidy. Once the bird washes its feathers, it will shake itself hard, shake off the loose feathers and put the other feathers back. It takes a long time to arrange feathers thoroughly. A healthy adult vulture has more than 7000 feathers.

distribution range

Vultures are distributed in North America, including Canada, the United States and northern Mexico. It is the only seahawk in North America. Vultures live in changing habitats in North America, from swamp tributaries, Louisiana, Sonoran Desert, deciduous forests in the east, Quebec and New England. The vultures in the north are migratory birds, and the vultures in the south are resident birds. ? Vultures were originally bred in central North America, but their minimum numbers were mainly limited to Alaska, northern Aleutian Islands, eastern Canada and Florida.

Subspecies distribution:

1.H？ Me? White matter? (Linnaeus? 1766) is a named subspecies. Where did you get it? h？ Me? Separated in Alaska. Mainly distributed in the central and southern United States, as well as the coastal areas of Baja California and Baja? California (about latitude? 38 ? n？ );

2.H？ Me? Washingtonian? (audubon? 1827), synonym? h？ Me? Alaskan? Thomson? 1897, a North Asian species, larger than the South nominated subspecies (? White matter. Alaska subspecies is mainly distributed in the northern United States, Alaska and western Canada (about 38? N arrives at the south Atlantic coast).

living environment

Having claws to kill animals and hooks to tear animals are the only correct definitions of birds of prey given by ornithologists. Like most other birds of prey, the vulture is a carnivorous bird during the day. It often hunts in pairs. With its unusually keen vision, it can see all the prey on the ground, in the water and in the trees even when flying in the air. However, vultures live on the coast of rivers, lakes or oceans because they mainly feed on fish. In the Chickat River area near Heiners, Alaska, USA, during the salmon migration season of 1 1 every year, only 10 km long river bank can attract three or four thousand vultures, which brings considerable economic benefits to tourism.

Living habits

Vultures feed on large fish such as salmon and trout, waterfowl such as wild ducks and seagulls, and small mammals living by the water. It has a strong flying ability and often makes the sound of seagulls when flying. Its vision is many times sharper than human eyes, especially its response to moving objects. It often hovers in the air, looking around the fields, with keen observation and agile movements. Even if there are three caves, it is inevitable that it will be dismembered by cunning rabbits under its claws, and it can also catch big fish weighing dozens of kilograms on the water. Sometimes, bald eagles will also move in pairs, chasing and catching injured or thin waterfowl together, occasionally attacking swans in flight, or dragging big fish floating near the water to the shore.

When hunting, vultures hover over the sea or lake, and at the same time search for fish swimming near the water with sharp eyes. Once it finds the target, it will quickly dive down and capture it. If the fish is small, catch it back with sharp claws and fly. If you can't catch the big fish, you will even be dragged down by the big fish. When we really can't get the hard-working prey, we have to put down the big fish and fly to the sky again.

Vultures have three ways of foraging:

First, I have searched;

Second, we often use the method of "grabbing the road" to get food like warship birds. The object of robbery is mainly the famous fishing expert-Osprey. Because the osprey is slightly smaller than the vulture, when the osprey catches fish in the water and is ready to fly to the branches to eat, the vulture often jumps out and launches a swift attack on the osprey, forcing the osprey to give up the food in its mouth. The vulture immediately grabs the food in the air and turns it into its own delicious meal.

Third, look around and see where other sculptures gather. When many sculptures gather around a place, other sculptures will know where food can be found. As far away as 64 kilometers, vultures can see the hovering eagles. In this way, bald eagles can find a good meal without much effort. Stealing food from other sculptures is very common. According to Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, there was a scene of "three eagles fighting for fish" over Alaska. A vulture caught a fish in the lake and flew home. On the way, two similar challenges, once many claws. The three sculptures seem to be fighting to the death, but amateur photographer Harry Ergens said that the battle lasted only a few seconds. The challenger is not interested in fish, but he is brave and ruthless, and wants to find an opponent to fight it out.

Three vultures with six claws entangled in the air? Like other birds, vultures have no teeth. They must swallow food piece by piece and tear their prey to pieces with hooked beaks. Even if the claws don't completely kill the prey, a peck at the tip of the beak is enough to kill it.

Growth and reproduction

How much contact there is between vultures depends on different times of the year. In spring and summer, adult eagles are busy building nests. For the convenience of fishing, bald eagles nest in trees by rivers, lakes or oceans, and use and build the same nest year after year. In the meantime, vultures ready to breed and pair will stick to their territory. They rarely come into contact with other vultures except to drive away intruders. In warm months, eagles too young to mate explore the east and west, learn about their surroundings and try to survive. During the winter migration, there will be more contact between vultures. Flocks of vultures often gather around rich food sources. Biologists believe that these winter settlements can provide a place for young adult sculptures to meet their spouses.

Vultures are lifelong spouses. During the breeding season, bald eagles often flock to some food-rich areas and build their nests on the walls of cliffs or on the tops of towering trees. The nesting materials are mainly branches, which are also covered with some bird hair and animal hair. Bald eagles, like other eagles, also like to use their old nests and constantly repair them during the breeding period, making them bigger and bigger, with a diameter of 2.8 meters, a thickness of 6 meters and a weight of 2000 kilograms. Female birds usually lay eggs in early June at 5438+065438+ 10, some early, some late, and the time can vary by several months. Each nest lays 2 eggs, the incubation period is about one month, and the date when the first chick and the second chick come out of the shell can be different by several days. Young birds are fed by both males and females. Generally, they are fed to small fish or small mammals, and they are torn into pieces and then fed to chickens. As the chicks grow up, they feed bigger and bigger pieces of food, and finally they put the whole food in the nest for it to peck at. By the end of the brooding period, the feeding amount increased each time, but the feeding times decreased gradually.

The female lays two eggs every year, and the incubation period is 35 days. It usually takes four months for chicks to grow into young birds after hatching. At this time, their body shape is almost the same as that of adults, and their weight will even exceed that of adults. The feathers of young birds are chestnut brown, and there are no white feathers on their heads and tails. Under the guidance of their parents, young birds began to practice catching prey or grabbing nest materials with their feet. In the process of exercise, the muscle strength of young birds is constantly enhanced, and the weight is also reduced. However, the color of young bird feathers changes very slowly, and it usually takes about 5 years to become the color of an adult bird. After 3 months, the little eagle left the nest and lived independently.

Birds usually stop laying eggs after hatching, but vultures are different. The female begins to hatch after laying the first egg, and then lays the second egg at the initial stage of hatching, so that the chicks can hatch a few days later, so the chicks hatched first are often much larger than those hatched later. When food is extremely scarce, it leads to the tragedy that chicks in the same nest kill each other. If there is no food to eat, the chicks hatched first will eat the chicks hatched later as food. This shows how severe the competition for survival is for the growth of vultures.

Demographic situation

Vultures are deeply loved by the American people because of their majestic posture and unique species in North America. Therefore, 1782 On June 20th, shortly after independence, US President Clark and the US Congress passed resolutions and legislation, and chose the vulture as the national bird of the United States. Today, the national emblem of the United States and the military uniform of the United States both depict a vulture, with an olive branch in one foot and an arrow in the other, symbolizing peace and powerful strength. In view of its extraordinary value, the vulture, as the national bird of America, is protected by law. 1982, President Reagan declared June 20th every year as Vulture Day, in order to attract national attention, which fully demonstrated his importance.

1782 When the vulture was designated as the national bird of the United States, there were about 65,438+10,000 vultures in the United States except Alaska. However, after the founding of the United States, the continuous land development has rapidly reduced the habitat of vultures, and excessive hunting has further reduced the number of vultures. 1940, the U.S congress passed the vulture and golden eagle protection act, which prohibited the killing and trading of vultures and strengthened the publicity of vulture protection among the people. After the promulgation of this law, the number of vultures in many States rebounded in the early 1940s. ?

Shortly after the end of World War II, the United States began to use a large number of pesticides such as DDT and PCB in agricultural production. These pesticides enter the vulture through the food chain, making the eggshell of the vulture soft, so it is impossible to hatch the baby eagle. In addition, the loss of habitat caused by human activities has also aggravated the threat faced by vultures. By 1963, there were only 4 17 pairs of nesting vultures left in the continental United States.

1973, after the US Congress passed the Endangered Species Act, the US Fisheries and Wildlife Service listed the vulture as an endangered species in 43 of the 48 states in the United States, while in the other five states with better conditions, the vulture was listed as an endangered species. Ms. Hoffman said that the definitions of the two are different: "Endangered species, as the name implies, are those that are likely to become extinct; Endangered species are on the verge and may become endangered species. It sounds simple, but this is how the law is divided. " ?

Since the 1970s, the American government and relevant institutions have taken a series of measures, including artificial breeding, habitat protection, helping the artificially bred vultures to return to nature, strengthening law enforcement, strengthening folk propaganda and so on, and achieved remarkable results. ?

From 65438 to 0995, the classification of "endangered species" of vultures in 43 States was changed to a lesser degree.

In 2003, the number of vultures in the mainland of the United States has reached more than 7,600 pairs-nearly 20 times higher than 1963.

In the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, vultures are listed in Appendix I. ..