4th September International Vulture Awareness Day

International Vulture Awareness Day shines a spotlight on the highly important yet vastly misunderstood birds – vultures.

Often misunderstood, vultures are the silent sentinels of our natural world. These remarkable creatures are nature’s cleaners, ecosystem guardians, flying giants, and devoted parents.

These remarkable birds play a vital role in maintaining sustainable and healthy ecosystems. By efficiently consuming carcasses and organic waste, vultures likely prevent the spread of deadly diseases that could devastate wildlife, livestock, and even people.

Vultures are facing a global crisis – they need our help to make a recovery. Vulture populations worldwide are experiencing catastrophic declines due to various threats, including direct and indirect poisoning, illegal killing, and electrocutions or collisions with power lines. 

Vultures are birds of prey who scavenge on carrion (the flesh of decaying animals carrion).There are Old World vultures which are native to  Africa, Asia and Europe. Then there are New World vultures that are native to North and South America. There are no vultures in Australia or Antarctica.

A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald, unfeathered head. This bare skin is thought to keep the head clean when feeding.

Vultures have three collective nouns allocated to them. A group of vultures in flight is called a "kettle", while the term "committee" refers to a group of vultures resting on the ground or in trees. A group of vultures that are feeding is termed a "wake".

There are not a lot of picture books about vultures, but my young students get interested in vultures because of these two books which feature a vulture.

The library has these stories:

• Vulture View  by April Pulley Sayre and Steve Jenkins

Turkey vultures are best known for being nature’s clean-up crew, but did you know they’re among the most graceful soaring birds on earth? Come spend a day in the life of a vulture and learn how they fly on thermals of warmed air, preen their feathers to stay squeaky clean, keep up their scavenger diet—and so much more. 

• The Sulky Vulture  by Sally Grindley and Michael Terry

Boris is a very sulky vulture - nothing ever goes quite right for him! When his friends try to take his mind off things and cheer him up, everything goes wrong: the swing he is swinging on breaks, he can't find the zebra in hide and seek, he ends up with a rhino chasing him when he plays catch. Even when mum offers him a hug he's still not happy. Some vultures are never pleased!

• Condor's Egg  by Jonathan London and James Chaffee

The story of a family of California Condors and their struggle to survive while their habitat is being destroyed, told in a carefully researched text accompanied by information on helping preserve the Condor. Condor is the common name for  two species of New World vultures.

Your library might also have :

• Vultures, a Love Story  by Karen Schaufeld and Kurt Schwarz

Little Igor, a vulture, was born with a limp and an unusual feather sticking up from his otherwise bald head. This tale is about appreciating our differences and our skills, and recognizing that we all deserve love.

There are some information books with good photographs:

27th April International Hyena Day

April 27th is International Hyena Day which advocates for changing the public's perspective on hyenas, and seeing their importance on Earth. 

Hyenas don't have the greatest reputation due to centuries of bad publicity through literature and folklore. 

Spread through Africa and Asia, hyenas are intelligent mammals living in clans of 10 to 120 animals. They are skilled hunters, and not only scavengers which still makes them essential to prevent the spread of disease. They have highly acidic stomachs to break down their food, even though it isn't the freshest quality.

Hyenas are vulnerable to extinction because of habitat loss and persecution by farmers and poachers.

When I share any book about African animals with students they like the 'big ones' and the scavengers...the hyenas, jackals and vultures. Our library doesn't have many books on the scavengers. It only has four information books, but we do have some stories that are worth a look:

• Hungry Hyena by Mwenye Hadithi and Adrienne Kennaway

• Pinduli by Janell Cannon

• The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

• Hey! What's that Nasty Whiff? by Julia Jarmin and Garry Parsons

• Henry Hyena, Why Won't You Laugh? by Doug Jantzen

• Noka's Surprise Party by Fiona Moodie

• That's Not Funny! by Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds