On the Web site for The Beauty of Ugly, you’ll get an in-depth look at some of these intriguing creatures. You’ll learn about the remarkable sensory abilities of the weird little star-nosed mole and the unusual social system of naked mole-rats and their imperious mole-rat queen, discover the threats faced by the Cape Griffon vulture, and get a fish-eye’s view of the needle-toothed viperfish and other deep-sea creatures, as photographed by a unique undersea camera called the Eye-in-the-Sea, designed by ocean researcher Dr. Edith Widder.

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Online content for The Beauty of Ugly was originally posted online November 2007.

The Cape Griffon vulture, the largest bird of its kind in Africa, is also one of the most endangered. Listed as “vulnerable” to extinction by the World Conservation Union (which is similar to “threatened” on the Endangered Species List) the Cape Griffon vulture has suffered a significant population decline over the past few decades. Among the dangers faced by the Capes, which are confined to a small area of south and southwest Africa, is electrocution on power lines. In addition, changes in the migration patterns of large game herds and an increase in domesticated animals (which are usually buried when they die) have diminished the amount of food available to the birds and led to dietary insufficiencies.

Of more concern, however, are mass accidental poisonings, says Maria Diekmann of the Rare and Endangered Species Trust (REST) in Namibia, where Cape Griffon vultures are the most endangered of all animal species. Farmers and ranchers commonly poison the carcasses of animals to kill predators like leopards and jackals, which prey on their livestock; the birds, which are carrion eaters and feed exclusively on dead animals, are inadvertently poisoned. “Poison is cheap, easy and effective. The problem is that they do it incorrectly or get incorrect information from the supplier and instead kill non-targeted species. I am also a farmer — our farm faces the cliffs of the last roosting site in Namibia — so I know the problems that they can have. We try hard to work with them,” says Diekmann.

Because of the gregarious nature of vultures, large numbers of the animals can be poisoned at once. “Vultures are incredibly social when eating,” Diekmann explains. “Numbers are security, so they will often wait until there are hundreds of birds to begin eating. A lot of followers and not many leaders. The problem is that if a carcass is poisoned you can kill 50 to 500 birds at once. I cannot think of any other species that this is possible with, and the Asian vulture crisis — 10 million birds dead in just over 10 years — has proved this.”

The Cape Griffon vulture has suffered a significant population decline over the past few decades.

“The Cape Griffon vulture is what I would call a ’super vulture.’ It is bigger, eats more, only roosts on cliffs; the needs are more specific. I think that all of our vulture species are declining. We just see it in the Cape first as the numbers were lower to begin with. [It] is an indicator species of what is probably going on with them all,” she says. The decline of vultures has particularly dramatic implications for the rest of the ecosystem. This is because vultures rapidly consume the bacteria-riddled bodies of dead animals, which would otherwise spread disease. The vultures themselves appear to be immune to many of these diseases. “The fact that they eat together and can consume a carcass in an hour seems to prevent most of these diseases from spreading to our wildlife and domestic animals,” Diekmann says.

To help conserve the Capes, Diekmann and her colleagues with REST, along with other vulture experts, have begun outfitting the birds with satellite telemetry collars, which allow their flight, breeding, and feeding patterns to be monitored and provide information about the sources of contaminants in their environment. “This gives us baseline data to work from, instead of checking the wind and guessing,” she says.

With these and other efforts, Diekmann is hopeful that the Capes can be saved: “Vultures respond well to conservation. A little goes a long way. If we can handle the poison issue, which we are starting to, that can save the population. I am not much of a gambler; I go for the win, and a loss here would be too big of a loss.

Cape Griffon Vulture (Gyps coprotheres)

• Type: Bird
• Family: Accipitridae
• Habitat: Nests on the ledges of high cliff faces
• Location: Endemic to southern Africa, but found mainly in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Botswana
• Diet: Carnivore (carrion eater)
• Average lifespan in the wild: Estimated between 50 and 70 years
• Size: 40-46 inches long (100-115 cm); wingspan 8-8.5 feet (240-255 cm)
• Weight: Average 18.9 lb (8.6 kg)

The Cape Griffon, Africa’s heaviest species of vulture, has a distinctive blue-skinned, featherless head and neck, a white ruff at the base of the neck, and honey-colored eyes. Like other vultures, the dark-brown bird, which can weigh over 20 pounds, has a sharp, hooked beak, for ripping apart flesh.

Although relatively little is known about life span of the animals, researchers believe they reach sexual maturity no earlier than five years old, breed in colonies located on cliff faces, and mate for life. A Cape female usually lays only one egg per year, with males and females sharing responsibility for the incubation of the egg.

Like other vultures, the Cape Griffon does not kill its prey, but rather feeds preferentially on the soft tissue and bone fragments of dead animals — usually nothing smaller than an antelope — that they find solely by sight. The vultures look for dead and dying animals and also watch for the distinctive circling behavior of other Capes, which is a sign that they have spotted a carcass. Cape Griffon vultures are extremely gregarious and social — a habit that extends to their eating habits. They are communal eaters and will feed in large groups, composed of sometimes hundreds of vultures.

The birds are considered “vulnerable” to extinction, and have an estimated population in the wild of approximately 8,100. The major threats to the animals are farmers and ranchers who poison the carcasses of dead animals to control scavenging jackals and leopards which may attack their livestock, along with disturbances to breeding colonies, and electrocution, particularly of young birds, on overhead power lines.

Did you know? The Cape Griffon vulture is often harvested for use in “muti” or witch-doctor medicine. The bird is believed by some cultures to have clairvoyant abilities that explain their knack for finding animal carcasses almost immediately after death. Because of this, the birds’ brains are sometimes consumed by individuals seeking clairvoyant power.

Related Programs:

• The Beauty of Ugly