Turkey Vulture in Horaltic Stance #1
by J McCombie
Title
Turkey Vulture in Horaltic Stance #1
Artist
J McCombie
Medium
Photograph - Untouched
Description
This vulture is often seen standing in a spread-winged or horaltic stance. The stance is believed to serve multiple functions. It is practiced more often following damp or rainy nights. This same behavior is displayed by other New World vultures, by Old World vultures, and by storks. Like storks, the turkey vulture often defecates on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces and/or urine to cool itself, a process known as urohidrosis. It cools the blood vessels in the unfeathered tarsi and feet, and causes white uric acid to streak the legs. If you observe vultures first thing in the morning, you will see they are standing in this horaltic pose. A vulture’s body temperature drops overnight, and this pose will help the birds to warm up. This pose is also used after bathing to dry their feathers. It may also help to bake off bacteria the vulture has picked up while feeding on carrion.
The Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), also known in some North American regions as the turkey buzzard (or just buzzard), and in some areas of the Caribbean as the John crow or carrion crow, is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus Cathartes, in the family Cathartidae, the Turkey Vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas, including subtropical forests, shrublands, pastures, and deserts.
It, like all New World vultures, is not related to the Old World vultures of Europe, Africa, and Asia. It looks nearly identical because of convergent evolution, where natural selection similarly shapes unrelated animals adapting to the same conditions.
The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its food using its keen eyes and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gases produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently. It roosts in large community groups. Lacking a syrinx—the vocal organ of birds—its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets. Each year it generally raises two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation. It has very few natural predators. In the United States, the vulture receives legal protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
The Turkey Vulture received its common name from the resemblance of the adult's bald red head and its dark plumage to that of the male Wild Turkey, while the name "vulture" is derived from the Latin word vulturus, meaning "tearer," and is a reference to its feeding habits. The word buzzard is used by North Americans to refer to this bird, yet in the Old World this word refers to members of the genus Buteo. The generic term Cathartes means "purifier" and is the Latinized form from the Greek kathartēs/καθαρτης. The species name, aura, is Latinized from the Native Mexican word for the bird, auroura. The Turkey Vulture was first formally described by Linnaeus as Vultur aura in his Systema Naturae in 1758, and characterised as V. fuscogriseus, remigibus nigris, rostro albo ("brown-gray vulture, with black wings and a white beak"). It is a member of the family Cathartidae, along with the other six species of New World vultures, and included in the genus Cathartes, along with the Greater Yellow-headed Vulture and the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture. Like other New World vultures, the Turkey Vulture has a diploid chromosome number of 80.
Vulture symbolism speaks of flexibility, perception and is admired for the awareness of this animal. The vulture is a bird capable of using all its senses to achieve all that can be completed in this life and embraces every day with its wings wide open in front of the opportunities the Sun brings to the new day. This Sunbathing is a cleansing ritual, in which the bird dries the dew from its feathers and lets the ultraviolet radiation kill the remaining bacteria from the last meal. The vulture symbolism is linked to death, rebirth, equalizing, perception, trust, seriousness, resourcefulness, intelligence, cleanliness, and protection.
Even if this bird is associated with death and other sinister ideas, the turkey vultures symbolism is about cleansing, adaptability, patience, loyalty, innovation, community, protection, death and rebirth, renewal, tolerance, protection. In many cultures, the vulture symbolizes a guardian or messenger between life and death, the physical world, and the spirit world. They have magical powers and are even seen as Gods. It is a contradictory symbol of darkness, mystery, divine power, and great wisdom at the same time.
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September 20th, 2021
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