V is for White Headed Vulture
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! It’s not just the pretty or cute ones that need our help...You can purchase this guy for £100 with £15 going to the conservation charity Tusk, link to shop in bio:
A medium-sized, mostly dark vulture with an angular, naked, pale pink head and bulky coral-colored beak. In flight, the adult’s white “armpits” extend out as a stripe along the middle of the underwing; the larger females differ from males by having all-white innermost flight feathers. Often one of the first vultures to arrive at a carcass but also scavenges the kills of eagles; sometimes hunts and kills small mammals, birds, and reptiles.
This Vulture has undergone catastrophic declines in population number, with an estimate median decline in 96% over three generations (45 years)
This decline has been seen in its very large range from West Africa, across to southern Africa also. Reductions in populations of medium-sized mammals and wild ungulates, as well as habitat conversion throughout its range best explain the current decline. Additional threats include indirect poisoning at baits set to kill jackals in small-stock farming areas.