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BREAKING NEWS!
baby vulture is crestfallen
baby vulture is crestfallen
cliff-fallen means you are sad and disappointed that you find yourself at the bottom of a cliff
From time to time the editorial we is called upon to transport an injured or orphan animal from UT Veterinary Hospital to wildlife rehabilitator Lynne McCoy in Jefferson County. This time it was a lone orphan baby possum. Lynne is already taking care of several.
The surprise came when we got to her home. She had been brought an orphan baby black vulture that had fallen off a cliff in Newport. Vultures often nest on rocky overhangs. Lynne was feeding it small pinkie mice as it grunted its approval.
(We know. It looks like a little old man in fuzzy muppet suit. Please don't snicker. It has suffered enough.)
Locally, we have two species: turkey vulture and black vulture. They look quite similar. There is a size difference, the turkey is larger with a wider wingspan and there is a plumage difference. But, perhaps the most interesting difference is how they interpret their world.
From high above, black vultures see carrion on the ground while turkey vultures actually smell it. As a rule, birds have a very weak sense of smell, yet the turkey vulture has a highly developed one. How it evolved is most curious because we have no clue.
Ob-la-de, ob-la-da.
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