Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Hi­malayan vul­tures (Gyps hi­malayen­sis) are in­dige­nous to the up­lands of cen­tral Asia, rang­ing from Kaza­khstan and Afghanistan in the west to west­ern China and Mon­go­lia in the east. These birds gen­er­ally mi­grate only al­ti­tu­di­nally within their cen­tral Asian range, how­ever im­ma­ture ju­ve­niles have been re­cently doc­u­mented in south­east Asia from north­ern Myan­mar to north­west In­done­sia. In this area they are seen with in­creas­ing fre­quency dur­ing the bo­real win­ter months of Oc­to­ber through March, pos­si­bly due to re­duced food avail­abil­ity dur­ing this pe­riod of time. (Li and Ka­sorn­dork­bua, 2008; Lu, et al., 2009)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native
• oriental
  • introduced

Habi­tat

This species pre­dom­i­nately in­hab­its the moun­tain­ous ter­rain of the Ti­betan plateau with mi­gra­tion usu­ally only oc­cur­ring al­ti­tu­di­nally. Breed­ing typ­i­cally oc­curs at el­e­va­tions be­tween 600 and 4,500 m. For­ag­ing has been ob­served to occur at el­e­va­tions as high as 5,000 m or more. Non-breed­ing mi­grants such as ju­ve­niles tend to spend the bo­real win­ter in the low­land plains near the south­ern edge of their range, just south of the Hi­malayas. A ma­jor­ity of the plateau land­scape is meadow, es­pe­cially in the north. The re­main­der of the plateau is dom­i­nated by alpine shrub in the mid­dle and forests in the south. (Li and Ka­sorn­dork­bua, 2008; Lu, et al., 2009; Vi­rani, et al., 2008)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• taiga
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• scrub forest
• mountains

• Other Habitat Features
• caves

• Range elevation

  600 to 6000 m

  1968.50 to 19685.04 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Hi­malayan vul­tures are huge, bulky vul­tures with stout bills, loosely feath­ered ruff, long wings, and a short tail. They can weigh up to 12 kg with a body length of 95 to 130 cm and a wingspan of 270 to 300 cm. Ju­ve­niles gen­er­ally ex­pe­ri­ence a grad­ual change of body cov­er­ing from white down to dark brown feath­ers with the head re­main­ing a whitish color. Adults strongly con­trast be­tween cream and black­ish, while the ju­ve­niles are dark. Adult plumage is used to dis­tin­guish them from G. ful­vus since G. hi­malayen­sis is much paler (less red­dish color) and larger. Hi­malayan vul­tures are also much larger than G in­di­cus and pos­sess a stouter, much more ro­bust bill. (Brown and Amadon, 1968; Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Ming, et al., 2013)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  8 to 12 kg

  17.62 to 26.43 lb

• Range length

  95 to 130 cm

  37.40 to 51.18 in

• Range wingspan

  270 to 300 cm

  106.30 to 118.11 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

These birds gen­er­ally mate at the nest site, but never on the ground. No courtship dis­play has been ob­served. The chest patches of fe­males have been noted to take on a dis­tinct red­dish tint prior to mat­ing. If the fe­male is re­cep­tive to a male, she crouches down as the male ap­proaches. The male then pro­ceeds to jump onto the fe­male's back and takes hold of her ruff with his beak, all while vo­cal­iz­ing by emit­ting loud roar­ing calls until there is con­tact be­tween the cloa­cae. The en­tire se­quence can take any­where from 30 sec­onds to a few min­utes. (Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Schlee, 1989)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Hi­malayan vul­tures are gen­er­ally site faith­ful mean­ing they re­turn to the same nest­ing and roost­ing sites from year to year. Nests are built on ledges or in small caves 100 to 200 m up cliffs. De­pend­ing on the size and struc­ture of the cliff, nest­ing colonies can hold be­tween five and six­teen nests. Nests are pre­dom­i­nantly com­posed of sticks and they can be ei­ther con­structed by the birds them­selves or those of Lam­mergeiers Gy­pae­tus bar­ba­tus that are taken over and re­paired. Nests are typ­i­cally built or re­paired from De­cem­ber to March. Eggs are laid be­tween Jan­u­ary and April, fol­lowed by hatch­ing be­tween Feb­ru­ary and May, and the rear­ing of chicks from July to Sep­tem­ber (some­times Oc­to­ber) at which time the ju­ve­niles fledge and leave the nest. The en­tire four to five month (can be ex­tended to six to seven months) re­pro­duc­tive pe­riod is one of the longest recorded among Gyps vul­tures, re­sult­ing in adult birds not re­ceiv­ing much respite. Only one, milky-white col­ored egg is laid by this species per breed­ing sea­son. When the eggs are hatched, the newly white downy chick weighs about 164 g and is fully ca­pa­ble of bit­ing. Breed­ing typ­i­cally oc­curs on a yearly basis and is not syn­chro­nized among in­di­vid­u­als thus hatch­ing dates vary by one to two months. (Acharya, et al., 2009; Fer­gu­son-Lees and Christie, 2001; Ming, et al., 2013; Schlee, 1989)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Himalayan vultures breed once yearly

• Breeding season

  Breeding is most common during the winter from December to March

• Average eggs per season

  1

• Range time to hatching

  54 to 65 days

• Average time to hatching

  58 days

• Range fledging age

  5 to 6 months

Males and fe­males both take part in build­ing nests. Be­fore the egg is laid, the fe­male plunges her breast into the nest push­ing the ma­te­r­ial into place to make a de­pres­sion while the male brings ma­te­r­ial for the nest to the fe­male. Both sexes par­tic­i­pate in in­cu­ba­tion, with the fe­male typ­i­cally on the nest dur­ing the morn­ing while the male takes over in the af­ter­noon. Both par­ents take care of the nestling. After hatch­ing the chick is closely brooded for the first few days, but by the end of the week the par­ents begin to leave it un­at­tended for ex­tended pe­ri­ods of time. The fe­male alone re­mains with the chick through­out the en­tire hatch­ing pe­riod and aids in pip­ping the egg via crack­ing it by break­ing off pieces with the tip of her beak. The chick is slipped out of the shell with the help of the fe­male and the male then con­sumes the shell. Both sexes are equally in­volved in feed­ing the nestling. Ini­tially, the par­ents re­gur­gi­tate a thick, whitish fluid from their stom­achs that serves as the pri­mary food source for the nestling, but over time they begin to feed it small pieces of car­cass. Over­all, both males and fe­males ex­hibit sim­i­lar parental be­hav­iors con­sist­ing of preen­ing the chick, watch­ing it, mov­ing it around, and feed­ing it. (Schlee, 1989)

• Parental Investment
• altricial

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The pop­u­la­tion dy­nam­ics of Hi­malayan vul­tures until re­cently, have sel­dom been stud­ied and thus re­main rel­a­tively un­known. As such, lit­tle to no in­for­ma­tion is known re­gard­ing their sur­vivor­ship and lifes­pan. How­ever, in one of their clos­est rel­a­tives, the White-backed vul­ture (G. africanus), the longest recorded lifes­pan in cap­tiv­ity is around 20 years. (Ar­shad, et al., 2009)

Be­hav­ior

Com­pared to other Gyps vul­tures, adult Hi­malayan vul­tures ap­pear to be less gre­gar­i­ous pre­fer­ring in­stead to nest singly or in small colonies com­posed of four to six pairs on cliff faces. Their large body size of­fers them dom­i­nance dur­ing feed­ing over other vul­tures at mixed gath­er­ings at car­casses such as cinere­ous vul­tures (Ae­gyp­ius monachus) and bearded vul­tures (Gyae­tus bar­ba­tus). Both of these species are sub­or­di­nate to the Hi­malayan vul­tures and keep their dis­tance when par­tak­ing in the con­sump­tion of a car­cass in order to avoid at­tacks. Hi­malayan vul­tures are highly mo­bile for­agers and gen­er­ally re­main away from human set­tle­ments. (Lu, et al., 2009; Vi­rani, et al., 2008)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• nomadic
• solitary
• social

• Average territory size

  2.5 million km^2

Home Range

Home range size of Hi­malayan vul­tures has not been iden­ti­fied in the lit­er­a­ture. (Lu, et al., 2009)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Like most Old World vul­tures, these scav­engers rely pre­dom­i­nantly on their eye­sight to find food com­pared to New World vul­tures that in­stead rely heav­ily on their keen sense of smell. (Lu, et al., 2009)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Sim­i­lar to other Gyps vul­tures, Hi­malayan vul­tures are spe­cial­ists on the car­rion of large mam­mals (wild and live­stock). Food is lo­cated vi­su­ally while soar­ing ei­ther di­rectly or in­di­rectly through the mon­i­tor­ing of other scav­eng­ing birds. The car­casses of live­stock, large wild her­bi­vores, and hu­mans are all in­cluded in the diet of Hi­malayan vul­tures. Yaks (Bos grun­niens) make up the ma­jor­ity of the the diet due to their large bio­mass, fol­lowed by wild un­gu­lates such as Ti­betan asses (Equus kiang) and Ti­betan an­te­lope (Pan­tholops hodg­sonii). Hi­malayan vul­tures typ­i­cally swal­low large pieces of flesh while softer car­cass parts are pre­ferred. (Li and Ka­sorn­dork­bua, 2008; Lu, et al., 2009; Ming, et al., 2013; Vi­rani, et al., 2008)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • scavenger

• Animal Foods
• carrion

Pre­da­tion

Apart from hu­mans, there are no known nat­ural preda­tors of Hi­malayan vul­tures.

Ecosys­tem Roles

Hi­malayan vul­tures are con­sid­ered lo­cal­ized scav­engers of na­ture, car­ry­ing out the im­por­tant role of help­ing to re­move and process car­rion. They are also the most dom­i­nant avian scav­enger on the Ti­betan plateau, ex­pe­ri­enc­ing min­i­mal com­pe­ti­tion for food re­sources from other scav­engers. (Lu, et al., 2009; Ming, et al., 2013)

• Ecosystem Impact
• biodegradation

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hi­malayan vul­tures are highly re­spected within the Bud­dhist cul­ture of the Ti­betan plateau, play­ing a unique role in a cen­turies old sky bur­ial tra­di­tion (feed­ing of human corpses to vul­tures at spe­cific sites) that is fol­lowed by about four mil­lion Ti­betan peo­ple. At sky bur­ial sites, human corpses that are in­tended for con­sump­tion by Hi­malayan vul­tures are bro­ken up by bur­ial priests. As a re­sult of this on­go­ing tra­di­tion, local peo­ple con­tinue to value and pro­tect these scav­engers. (Acharya, et al., 2009; Lu, et al., 2009; Ming, et al., 2013)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of Hi­malayan vul­tures on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

In parts of Asia and Africa, the use of vet­eri­nary di­clofenac has had a dev­as­tat­ing im­pact on Gyps vul­tures es­pe­cially in the low­land re­gions of the In­dian sub­con­ti­nent where only the first year im­ma­ture (subadult and ju­ve­nile) Hi­malayan vul­tures win­ter there. Di­clofenac, a non­s­teroidal anti-in­flam­ma­tory drug, causes vis­ceral gout in vul­tures that have con­sumed con­t­a­m­i­nated car­casses ul­ti­mately re­sult­ing in renal fail­ure. The con­sump­tion of car­casses ex­posed to di­clofenac by Hi­malayan vul­tures is a se­ri­ous threat to their con­tin­ued sur­vival. (Lu, et al., 2009; Ming, et al., 2013; Vi­rani, et al., 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Other Com­ments

Hi­malayan vul­tures are the least stud­ied of the Gyps vul­tures due to their oc­cur­rence at high el­e­va­tions in cold cli­mates and strong winds. Local Bud­dhist peo­ple be­lieve that Hi­malayan vul­tures carry the soul of a dead per­son to heaven, thus if vul­tures do not visit the corpse it is be­lieved that the in­di­vid­ual has sinned greatly dur­ing his or her life­time. (Acharya, et al., 2009; Lu, et al., 2009)

Con­trib­u­tors

Amrit Gill (au­thor), In­di­ana Uni­ver­sity-Pur­due Uni­ver­sity Fort Wayne, Mark Jor­dan (ed­i­tor), In­di­ana Uni­ver­sity-Pur­due Uni­ver­sity Fort Wayne, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

2014. "AnAge: The An­i­mal Age­ing and Longevity Data­base" (On-line). White-backed vul­ture (Gyps africanus) longevity, age­ing, and life his­tory. Ac­cessed May 20, 2015 at http://​genomics.​senescence.​info/​species/​entry.​php?​species=Gyps_​africanus.

Acharya, R., R. Cuth­bert, H. Baral, K. Shah. 2009. Rapid pop­u­la­tion de­clines of Hi­malayan Grif­fon Gyps hi­malayen­sis in Upper Mus­tang, Nepal. Bird Con­ser­va­tion In­ter­na­tional, 19(1): 99-107.

Ar­shad, M., J. Gon­za­lez, A. El-Sayed, T. Os­borne, M. Wink. 2009. Phy­logeny and phy­lo­geog­ra­phy of crit­i­cally en­dan­gered Gyps species based on nu­clear and mi­to­chon­dr­ial mark­ers. Jour­nal of Or­nithol­ogy, 150 (3): 419-430.

Brown, L., D. Amadon. 1968. GYPS HI­MALAYEN­SIS. Pp. 323-325 in Ea­gles, Hawks and Fal­cons of the World, Vol. 1, 1st Edi­tion. New York: Mc­Graw-Hill Book Com­pany.

Fer­gu­son-Lees, J., D. Christie. 2001. Rap­tors of the World. Great Britain: A&C Black Ltd..

Li, Y., C. Ka­sorn­dork­bua. 2008. The sta­tus of the Hi­malayan Grif­fon Gyps hi­malayen­sis in South-East Asia. FORK­TAIL, 24: 57-62.

Lu, X., D. Ke, X. Zeng, G. Gong, R. Ci. 2009. Sta­tus, Ecol­ogy, and Con­ser­va­tion of the Hi­malayan Grif­fon Gyps hi­malayen­sis (Aves, Ac­cip­itri­dae) in the Ti­betan Plateau. AMBIO: A Jour­nal of the Human En­vi­ro­ment, 38(3): 166-173.

Ming, M., C. Dao, G. Xu, J. Shan, X. Zhao, A. Maimaitim­ing, R. Xing, B. Luo. 2013. Why are ju­ve­nile Hi­malayan vul­tures Gyps hi­malayen­sis in the Xin­jiang Tien Shan still at the nest in Oc­to­ber?. BirdingA­SIA, 20: 84-89.

Schlee, M. 1989. Breed­ing the Hi­malayan grif­fon Gyps hi­malayen­sis at the Paris Menagerie. In­ter­na­tional Zoo Year­book, 28(1): 334-340.

Vi­rani, M., J. Giri, R. Wat­son, H. Baral. 2008. Sur­veys of Hi­malayan Vul­tures (Gyps hi­malayen­sis) in the An­na­purna Con­ser­va­tion Area, Mus­tang, Nepal. Jour­nal of Rap­tor Re­search, 42(3): 197-203.