Cinereous Vulture

About the Cinereous Vulture

The cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus), also known as the black vulture, Eurasian black vulture, and monk vulture, is a very large raptor in the family Accipitridae distributed through much of temperate Eurasia. With a body length of 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in), 3.1 m (10 ft) across the wings and a maximum weight of 12.5 kg (28 lb), it is the largest Old World vulture and largest member of the family Accipitridae.

Aegypius monachus is one of the largest birds of prey and it plays an important role in its various ecosystems by eating carcasses, which in turn reduces the spread of diseases. The vultures are constantly exposed to many pathogens because of their eating carrion. A study of the gastric and immune defense systems conducted in 2015 sequenced the bird's entire genome. The study compared cinereous vultures to bald eagles, finding positively selected genetic variations associated with respiration and the ability of the vulture's immune defense responses and gastric acid secretion to digest carcasses.

The genus name Aegypius is a Greek word (αἰγυπιός) for 'vulture', or a bird not unlike one; Aelian describes the aegypius as "halfway between a vulture (gyps) and an eagle... Wikipedia →