Vultures are scavengers, which means they eat animals that have already died rather than hunting live prey. This might sound unpleasant, but it is one of the most important jobs in any mountain ecosystem. Vultures remove carcasses quickly and cleanly, preventing the spread of disease to other animals and keeping the landscape healthy.
A griffon vulture's bald head and long, bare neck are an adaptation for their feeding habits — feathers would get very messy and be hard to clean inside a carcass. Their strong stomach acid can neutralise dangerous bacteria that would make most other animals extremely sick.
Griffon vultures are thermal soaring experts. They ride columns of warm air called thermals — invisible columns that rise from sun-heated rock and hillside — to gain altitude without using any energy. Once high enough, they glide long distances scanning the ground for food. On a good thermal day, a vulture can travel over 200 kilometres without a single wingbeat.
They nest in noisy colonies on cliff ledges, returning to the same site every year. Both parents take turns sitting on the single egg and later feeding the chick, which takes about five months to fledge — one of the slowest-growing birds in Europe.