Sometime last week, I posted a shot of a Cape Vulture taken at the Oudtshoorn Wildlife Ranch. That vulture was a “normal” Cape Vulture, in that, despite being in captivity, it knew that it was a vulture and it recognised others around it as being vultures too.
The Cape Vulture at Radical Raptors was slightly different. Sure, it probably knows that it’s a vulture, but it thinks that the guy who runs the centre is its mum, and thus constantly begs for food from him, in the same way that baby birds in a – say – robin’s nest would beg for food.
Aww.
The difference, of course, is that the Cape Vulture is:
a) far more mobile than these baby robins, and
b) has a wingspan of 2.6 metres.
The result is frankly terrifying:
But for all his deafening, banshee like screaming, he’s completely subservient and all he wants is a few scraps of meat.
Still, you wouldn’t want to get between him and his food. Like… er… I inadvertently did.
More pics (but still no blog post yet!) from Plett here.