Critically Endangered
Rüppell's Vulture
Gyps rueppelli
Rüppell's Vulture is a bird in the family Accipitridae (order Accipitriformes) — Gyps rueppelli, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The Rüppell's vulture is a very large vulture, noticeably outsizing the closely related white-backed vulture, with that they often occur in the wild. Both sexes look alike: mottled brown or black overall with a whitish-brown underbelly and thin, dirty-white fluff covering the head and neck. The base of the neck has a white collar, the eye is yellow or amber, the crop patch deep brown.
Adults are 85 to 103 cm (33 to 41 in) long, with a wingspan of 2.26 to 2.6 m (7 ft 5 in to 8 ft 6 in), and a weight that ranges from 6.4 to 9 kg (14 to 20 lb).
Published measurements include mass about 225.
Range and habitat
Since 1992, Rüppell's vulture has been occurring as a vagrant in Spain and Portugal, with annual records since 1997, mainly in the Cádiz and Strait of Gibraltar area, but also further north. Rüppell's vulture, also called Rüppell's griffon vulture or Rüppell's griffon, a species of vulture named after Eduard Rüppell, is a large, resident bird of prey, mainly native to the Sahel region and East Africa. The former population of 22,000 individuals has been decreasing due to loss of habitat, incidental poisoning, and other factors.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
Strictly a carrion feeder, the Rüppell's vulture has been known to follow game herds on their seasonal migrations and feeds in large numbers at carcasses, usually with other Old World vulture species. Even though it might take advantage of the remains of an animal killed by a lion, or other large predator, it can also feed on animals that have died from injuries, disease, or old age.
Even though they prefer freshly-killed meat, they can eat older carcasses without a problem. Rüppell's vultures have several adaptations to their diet and are specialized feeders even among the Old World vultures of Africa. This species of vulture is considered to be monogamous, forming lifelong breeding pairs.
In crisis
It is therefore listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. The species has been listed with an IUCN Red List status of "near threatened" since 2007, and populations are estimated to decline. From 2012 to 2014 the Rüppell's vulture was listed as Endangered. Even so, it was reassessed in 2015 as Critically Endangered.
Under this designation, the Rüppell's vulture is defined as not being immediately at risk of extinction, although the current population could become threatened without a careful regulation of trade. The total population of Rüppell's vulture has been estimated to be somewhere around 22,000 individuals, with specific populations in the following areas: Tanzania (3,000 pairs). Kenya (2,000 pairs); ethiopia (2,000 pairs); sudan (2,000 pairs), and West Africa (2,000 pairs).
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Rüppell's Vulture is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Rüppell's Vulture, Wikidata item Q55111925. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
