Obligatory disclaimer: real life still sucks, but at least I
have seen a chipmunk. A wild one, so yay! I can now die happy. Not, because the
world is still out of balance, the dateline for ending the lockdown/quarantine/etc.
in May seems to be going nowhere, and now, Ford’s – that the Ontario premier we’re
talk about – mother in law is sick. I do not like him, but, still, I will not
deny it either – this got to smart! What next?
Well, after the urial fiasco, I wanted to talk about
something else, and decided upon the vulture. No, I am not talking about the
Marvel villain, though MCU’s take on him in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ was quite
interesting, and if anyone remembers the ‘Morbius’ trailer, clearly, he is not
done with anything or anyone yet. That said, with the COVID-19 lockdown still
in action, it will be quite a while since we will see anything of ‘Morbius’ the
movie, so let us not and say that we did.
As for the real-life birds… what about them? The term ‘vulture’
applies to scavenging birds of two, or even three, families, as the ‘New World’
vultures, (such as the condors and the king vulture), aren’t really related to
the ‘Old World’ vultures, (such as the lammergeyer and the cinereous vulture).
The two vulture groups don’t even look very similar to each other – just compare
a New World vulture, (say, the black vulture), to an Old World vulture, (for
example, the white-backed). The two birds do not really look anything alike;
their similarities are more in behavior, but-!
But, firstly, the two groups of aerial scavengers differ in
that the New World vultures have a very developed sense of smell, (a rarity
amongst the modern birds), while the Old World vultures hunt… well, scavenge,
through the sense of sight alone. (Just look at the YouTube video on the Inside
Edition channel, where a turkey vulture is circling above NYC – that’s a bird
that is a) on a mission and b), guided both by sight and smell. I have seen
turkey vultures live in Canada, (albeit southern Canada, but still), and, yes,
they are a gruesome sight, much less comely than a chipmunk is, but we digress.
The thing is, that secondly, Old World vultures don’t look identical
either; some of them, like the abovementioned lammergeyer (aka the bearded
vulture), or the so-called Egyptian vulture, look very different from the rest
of them, which is why the Old World vultures are sometimes classified in two
families, or at least – two subfamilies, one with the lammergeyer, the Egyptian
vulture, and the palm-nut vulture, and the second with the rest of the Old
World vulture birds. Both subfamilies belong to the Accipitridae family, which
makes them a part of the Accipitriformes order, which contains not just the
vultures, but also the various hawks, kites, buzzards and eagles. (It is a
tangled mess). Pause.
The New World vultures, on the other hand, belong to the
Cathartidae family, which is a part of an entirely different avian order. There
is no clear idea as to which birds are more closely related to the New World
vultures – the other birds of prey, or the storks, of which we have talked
about in the past. (Animal taxonomy is a dense mess). Some scientists do think
that the New World vultures are more related to the other birds of prey, but
that still isn’t settled; what is certain, is that many vultures are endangered
and should be protected, because if they die-out, it’ll be bad. Anything else?
Sadly, nothing much; nothing is good on YouTube anyhow, and
the TV is out of my reach for the moment. For better or for worse, life keeps
on happening, and when it stops, there is always the vulture to send you on
your way.
…Well, this was morbid. Also, this is it for now. See you
all soon!
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