Turkey Vulture

We are always amazed at how nature is at work all around us. Everything has a function, a purpose, which leads us to our interesting and very important Turkey Vulture. 

This scavenger is about 25-32” long, weighs about 2-5lbs and has a wingspread of 63-72”. They are black with a bald red head and legs and get their name from their resemblance to wild turkeys. 

You can find them circling in the sky or on the ground feasting on the flesh of a dead animal known as carrion. The Turkey Vulture finds its food by picking up on the gasses emitted by a fresh carcass, which they can smell up to 8 miles away.

Did you know? Their bald heads enables them to get up inside a carcass without much mess or trouble. 

Turkey Vultures roost in groups and use low grunts and hisses to communicate. They raise two chicks per year, have few natural predators, and are protected under the Migratory Bird Act of 1918.

Photos by Ellen Albiter

How Do Horses Find Water?

By Deborah Walker.
The wild horse is well suited to various climates, including deserts. The ability to find water is quite important to the horse, and they can actually “smell” water at the surface and underground. 

“Smell” water isn’t quite correct, what they smell is the organic material in and around water sources. Their smell is one million times that of us humans and they are able to detect water smells and life. This nifty trait arose due to natural selection. Horses would not survive without life giving water. 

Historically, horses have even been used to locate underground water! During the Ottoman Empire, horses were used to detect water pipelines surrounding castles. The Ottomans would then dig up the pipelines cutting off the defending army’s water source! 

In the same way, wild horses and burros have been documented to dig at underground water to drink. Those little wells not only benefited them, but other wildlife as well