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Griffon vulture in Israel

The. disappearance. of. the. Griffon vulture in Israel. Writen by: . Avigail Bartal and Keren Orgad. Date:. 21/ 04/ 2004. 1. The griffon vulture - Gyps fulvus. Classification. Kingdom – Phylum – Class – Order – Family -. Animalia. Chordata. Aves. Falconiformes.

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Griffon vulture in Israel

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  1. The disappearance of the Griffon vulture in Israel Writen by: Avigail Bartal and Keren Orgad Date: 21/ 04/ 2004

  2. 1. The griffon vulture - Gyps fulvus Classification • Kingdom – • Phylum – • Class – • Order – • Family - Animalia Chordata Aves Falconiformes Accipitridae

  3. Discription: Body length - 1.1 m long Wingspan - 2.8 m Weight - 6 to 8 kg Color - light brown except for dark flight feathers and tail. Short legs with weak blunt toes. Almost bald. Head and neck are only thinly covered with short white feathers, because getting bloody when eating. White collar on the base of the neck. Short pointed beaks.

  4. Feeding Scavengers, they feed on carcasses. As one of the old world vultures it do not have a good sense of small and uses its excellent eyesight as it soar from above over open areas looking for a kill. Its weak beak is not suited for tearing up flesh, therefore depend upon other scavengers to begin the job for it. They eat in groups. As others see one diving towards a carrion they join it. After they have finished eating they tend to wash near pools of water together and then stand under the sun with their wings spread to dry out.

  5. Life cycle The offspring fledge 3-4 month after hatching. Mature enough to breed after 7 years. Live around 40 years. social behavior The friendliest and most social of the old world vultures. They are non-territorial and live in colonies of up to dozens of members.

  6. Breeding As monogamists, they are pair for life. They tend to fly together, comb each other with their beaks and build together their nest on cliffs on the same place they mate. On January – Mars, The female lays one egg on which they share incubating time up to 55 days. The offspring stays in the nest for 4 month, after that it accompanies its parents for a learning period but still depend on them for food. After that it is mature enough to live on its own.

  7. Habitat Steep cliffs of mountains and river canyons. Ecological role As scavengers, it plays a role as the nature sanitarian as they feed on carrion and by that, preventing the spreading of diseases such as rabies.

  8. Flight Due to its huge size almost never in active flying, instead it uses air currents on which it can glide for hours without any effort. It can pass dozens or even hundreds of kilometers in search for food.

  9. 2. The Griffon vulture in Israel Until the 19th century, the Griffon vulture was abundant in Israel. All over the country thousands were present, in which 1,000 at list were nesting in huge colonies. As for today, their population is only 5% as it was in the past – only 300-350 exist in Israel and only 60-70 are nesting. Most of the Griffon vultures live in the Golan at the Gamla reservation, which includes 30 pairs and few young ones. The Griffon vulture can also be found in the north at river canyons of rivers in other parts of the Golan and the galil and the Carmel mountain. At the south they live at the Juda mountains.

  10. 3. The reasons for the disappearance of the griffon Poisoning The cause: Poison bates for pest animals, which were spread in fields in the Golan by farmers, caused the poisoning of the griffon which ate the carrions. The result: The griffon dies in matter of few hours after eating the poisoned carrion.

  11. Electrocution The cause: • The griffon landing on electric poles creates a close circuit by: By spreading its wings as it lands, touches two wires simultaneously. Touching the wire with its head as it stands on it.By its liquid droppings as it stands on the upper wires. The result: • As many as 65 electrocution incidents accrue between the years 80-90. All are fetal. • so far 2,000 landing sites have been installed on the electric poles have lowered the electrocutions of the griffons greatly. Part of the “embrace griffon vultures” of the electric company (July 96’). The solution:

  12. Noise exposures The cause: • noise caused by tourists, air force air crafts trainings and civilian air crafts, frighten the griffon and scare them away. The solution: • Rising the awareness of tourists as well as discussions with the air force and minimizing the problem.

  13. Rickets Definition: • childhood disorder involving weakening and softening of the bones, caused primarily by lack of vitamin D, calcium and phosphate. Revelation: • the problem was reveled by 2 explorers that when arrived to the nest scared a chick causing it to vomit its last meal. Surprisingly, they found in it pieces of bullet shells and bomb shells. Later other nests were also found to contain pieces of metals and 2 chicks were found with fractures in their wings. The cause: at the growth period the chicks add 50 grams to its body weight a day. The past primary calcium source from small mammals changed as the growing of livestalk took over.

  14. The large bones of cows which were not suited to feed the little chicks, were replaced instinctively by the parents by other shiny little objects as bullet & bomb shells. The result: • due to the replacement of bones which are the calcium source for the chicks by pieces of metals, many of them were suffering from rickets which is expressed by bone fractures, weakness, decreased muscle tone and impaired growth. The solution: today there are 10 feeding stations all contain meat which will attract the griffon vultures and beside it a rich supply of ground bones. This solution almost stop the rickets completely.

  15. 4. Saving the griffon vulture Authorities such as the nature and gardens, natural reservations, the company for nature protection as well as organizations as “embrace a Griffon vulture” and “spread wings”, are working today to prevent the causes to the disappearance of the Griffon vulture and also introducing them to other habitats in which they use to live in the past. Latest studies have shown that the population is indeed increasing.

  16. 5. Bibliography • http://www.geocities.com/area51/crater/4077/falconpage1.htm • www.images.maariv.co.il/cache/art641926.html • http://www.golan.org.il/erzgolan/9doc.htm • http://www.wcssience.com/vulture/page.html • http://www.tevalife.com/article.asp?id=1431 • http://www.vultures.homesteed.com/eurasian/griffon.html • The encyclopeadia of the animals & plants of Israel pg. 129-131 • The world atlas of animals/ Alessandro Minelli & Ezio Borella pg.21

  17. http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/priors/griffon.shtml • http://www.oaklandzoo.org/atoz/azgrvult.html • http://home.hccnet.nl/r.goedegebuur/roofvog/valegiere.html • http://schoolinkmatar.cet.ac.il/users/n/nurit1/www/pages/ • http://www.matar.ac.il/eureka/eagle.asp • http://www.birds.org.il/show_item.asp?levelId=237&itemId=1635&birdId=13 • http://www.matar.ac.il/mada/eagle.asp • http://gamla.golan.org.il/ts.exe?tsurl=0.386.14651.0.0 • t http://lib.cet.ac.il/Pages/item.asp?item=1698

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