Vultures as an overlooked model in cognitive ecology

Overveld, Thijs van; Sol, Daniel; Blanco, Guillermo; Margalida, Antoni; Riva, Manuel de la; Donázar, José A.

doi:10.1007/s10071-021-01585-2

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Thus, social learning might shape the foraging niche of individuals [56]. We posit that the high cognitive capacity of vultures [57] could facilitate complex social behaviours and the transmission and assimilation of cultural traits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger

et al. 2023

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Individual dietary variation has important ecological and evolutionary consequences. However, it has been overlooked in many taxa that are thought to have homogeneous diets. This is the case of vultures, considered merely as ‘carrion eaters’. Given their high degree of sociality, vultures are an excellent model to investigate how inter-individual transmissible behaviours drive individual dietary variation. Here, we combine GPS-tracking and accelerometers with an exhaustive fieldwork campaign to identify the individual diet of 55 griffon vultures ( Gyps fulvus ) from two Spanish populations that partially overlap in their foraging areas. We found that individuals from the more humanized population consumed more anthropic resources (e.g. stabled livestock or rubbish), resulting in more homogeneous diets. By contrast, individuals from the wilder population consumed more wild ungulates, increasing their dietary variability. Between sexes, we found that males consumed anthropic resources more than females did. Interestingly, in the shared foraging area, vultures retained the dietary preference of their original population, highlighting a strong cultural component. Overall, these results expand the role of cultural traits in shaping key behaviours and call for the need of including cultural traits in Optimal Foraging models, especially in those species that strongly rely on social information while foraging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger

et al. 2023

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“…This likely explains the lack of correlation between skull size and shape among vultures. Thus, body size in vultures probably evolved in response to selective pressures acting on searching or foraging efficiency such as flight conditions (Houston, 1987;Ruxton & Houston, 2004), habitat (Xirouchakis & Mylonas, 2004), species interactions (Jackson et al, 2020;van Overveld et al, 2020van Overveld et al, , 2022, and physiological capacity (Ruxton & Houston, 2004). Future morphometric research investigating the relationship between vulture feeding types and other ecological traits, particularly species interactions, is recommended.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across the 23 extant species, vultures exhibit phylogenetic (Jarvis et al., 2014), ecological (Linde‐Medina et al., 2021; van Overveld et al., 2020), and morphological diversity (Böhmer et al., 2020; Hertel, 1994; Holmes et al., 2022). Distinctions in sociality (Kendall, 2013; van Overveld et al., 2020), breeding and nesting behavior (Kemp & Kemp, 1975; Kendall, 2013; Krüger et al., 2015; Mundy et al., 1992), migratory and movement patterns (Alarcón & Lambertucci, 2018), habitat preferences (del Hoyo et al., 1992; Kendall, 2014), sensory perception (Jackson et al., 2020; Ogada et al., 2012; Portugal et al., 2017; Spiegel et al., 2013), and feeding and foraging strategies (Houston, 1987; Jackson et al., 2020; Kruuk, 1967; Ogada et al., 2012; van Overveld et al., 2022) have been recorded. For example, Gypohierax angolensis and Gypaetus barbatus both display unique dietary preferences, with the former primarily a herbivore (Lambertucci et al., 2021) and the latter a bone specialist (Cramp, 1980).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carrion converging: Skull shape predicts feeding ecology in vultures

Steinfield,

Felice,

Kirchner

et al. 2023

Journal of Zoology

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The link between skull shape and dietary ecology in birds at macroevolutionary scales has recently been called into question by analyses of 3D shape that reveal that cranial anatomy is mainly influenced by other factors such as allometry. It is still unknown whether this form‐function disconnect also exists at smaller evolutionary scales, for example within specialized ecological guilds. Vultures are a diverse guild of 23 extant species in two families (Accipitridae and Cathartidae) that exhibit evolutionary convergence as a result of highly specialized feeding ecology. Vultures are the only known obligate scavengers among vertebrates and are usually grouped together under this single dietary category, but within this specialized diet there are three distinct, species‐specific feeding strategies termed ripper, gulper, and scrapper. We use three‐dimensional geometric morphometrics to quantify the relative contributions of feeding ecology, allometry, and phylogeny on vulture skull shape, along with several non‐vulture raptors of similar size, range and ecology. Families show clear separation in shape, but phylogenetic signal is comparatively weak (Kmult = 0.33). Taking into account the influence of phylogeny, skull shape is not significantly correlated with either skull size or feeding type, but there are examples of strong, significant convergence and parallel shape evolution across feeding groups. Furthermore, skull shape performs strongly in predicting feeding ecology in a phylogenetic discriminant function analysis. These findings highlight the importance of detailed assessment of feeding behavior in studies of ecomorphology, rather than broader dietary categories alone, and reveal that ecology can be readily inferred from form given appropriate information.

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“…This likely explains the lack of correlation between skull size and shape among vultures. Thus, body size in vultures probably evolved in response to selective pressures acting on searching or foraging efficiency such as flight conditions (Ruxton & Houston, 2004;Houston 1987), habitat (Xirouchakis & Mylonas, 2004), species interactions (van Overveld et al, 2020;van Overveld et al, 2022;Jackson et al, 2020), and physiological capacity (Ruxton & Houston, 2004). Future morphometric research investigating the relationship between vulture feeding types and other ecological traits, particularly species interactions, is recommended.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across the 23 extant species, this guild exhibits phylogenetic (Jarvis et al, 2014), ecological (van Overveld et al, 2020Linde-Medina et al, 2021), and morphological diversity (Hertel, 1994;Böhmer et al, 2020;Holmes et al, 2022). Distinctions in sociality (Kendall, 2013;van Overveld et al, 2020), breeding and nesting behavior (Kemp & Kemp, 1975;Krüger et al, 2015;Kendall, 2013;Mundy et al, 1992), migratory and movement patterns (Alarcón & Lambertucci, 2018), habitat preferences (Kendall, 2014;Del Hoyo et al, 1992), sensory perception (Spiegel et al, 2013;Portugal et al, 2017;Ogada et al, 2012;Jackson et al, 2020), and feeding and foraging strategies (Kruuk, 1967;Houston, 1987;Ogada et al, 2012;Jackson et al, 2020;van Overveld et al, 2022) have been recorded. For example, Gypohierax angolensis and Gypaetus barbatus both display unique dietary preferences, with the former primarily an herbivore (Lambertucci et al, 2021) and the latter a bone specialist (Cramp, 1980).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carrion converging: Skull shape is predicted by feeding ecology in vultures

Steinfield

Felice

Kirchner

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The link between skull shape and dietary ecology in birds at macroevolutionary scales has recently been called into question by analyses of 3D shape that reveal that cranial anatomy is mainly influenced by other factors such as allometry. It is still unknown whether this form-function disconnect also exists at smaller evolutionary scales, for example within specialized ecological guilds. Vultures are a diverse guild of 23 extant species in two families (Accipitridae and Cathartidae) that exhibit phenotypic convergence as a result of highly-specialized feeding ecology. Vultures are the only known obligate scavengers among vertebrates and are usually grouped together under this single dietary category, but within this specialized diet there are three distinct, species-specific feeding strategies termed ripper, gulper, and scrapper. We use three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to quantify the relative contributions of feeding ecology, allometry, and phylogeny on vulture skull shape, along with several non-vulture raptors of similar size, range and ecology. Families show clear separation in shape, but phylogenetic signal is comparatively weak (Kmult = 0.33). Taking into account the influence of phylogeny, skull shape is not significantly correlated with either skull size or feeding type, but there are examples of strong, significant convergence and parallel shape evolution across feeding groups. Furthermore, skull shape performs strongly in predicting feeding ecology in a phylogenetic discriminant function analysis. These findings highlight the importance of detailed assessment of feeding behavior in studies of ecomorphology, rather than broader dietary categories alone, and reveal that ecology can be readily inferred from form given appropriate information.

show abstract

Vultures as an overlooked model in cognitive ecology

Cited by 7 publications

References 74 publications

Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger

Vulture culture: dietary specialization of an obligate scavenger

Carrion converging: Skull shape predicts feeding ecology in vultures

Carrion converging: Skull shape is predicted by feeding ecology in vultures

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