Vultures Vultures, like snakes and hyenas, are regarded as bad characters in the African animal kingdom. But in fact, they are the most cooperative group of African animals, and they play an important role in the local ecosystem. Among the global 16 species of vultures, Africa includes 1 1 species. These vultures feed on scavengers and play an important role as scavengers, specializing in removing rotting corpses. Vultures don't have sharp claws like eagles and falcons, so they can't let themselves hunt. In fact, the main food of vultures is animal carcasses, and the causes of death are mostly old age, illness, amputation or newborn animals. Because vultures have different search techniques and eating habits, they can not only survive, but also know reciprocity. Lappet-face vulture is the largest vulture in Africa, with wings over 3 meters. It is the only vulture with a huge beak, strong enough to peck the thick skin of boiled water cows and giraffes, while other vultures will wait around until the vultures are full. Vultures have a fixed life partner, for example, Griffon of Rüppell, which may last for forty or fifty years. Vultures only lay one egg every year, and only when the female vulture is about to start her next reproduction will the young vulture begin to live. Vultures' claws and mouths bend inward, which is convenient for hunting, but they can't hunt if they are too curved, so they will choose a place to smash their mouths and claws and wait until they grow back to avoid starvation. And this process is very painful. American conservation workers usually use calves stillborn in dairy farms as food for vultures; If these vultures eat seafood, it may help them survive without humans. The team led by scientists from Stanford University measured the carbon and nitrogen isotope concentrations in the feathers and bones of vultures' remains, and reconstructed the food sources of ancient and modern vultures. The researchers concluded that after the last ice age, the food of vultures seemed to be mixed with marine mammals. At the same time, they also found another sign of change in the food source of vultures: from land-based meals to only land animals; This transition period corresponds to the period when settled humans began to catch seals and whales. The paper published in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences in June 5438+065438+1October 65438+May 2005 pointed out that reintroducing seafood into the diet of vultures may help to establish a self-sufficient vulture population.

Once upon a time, there was a photographer who famously said, "If people are not moved by life, life is meaningless. In order to capture every move in life, he decided to pick up the camera and photograph all the moving scenes. He especially likes shooting sunsets. Every time the sun goes down, he always presses the shutter 72 times and uses two rolls of film. Once, his friend finally couldn't help asking him, "can you just press the shutter when you are moved?" "? He replied, "But every time you press the shutter, it's a touching moment. Do you know that?/You know what? Do you know that?/You know what? Sunset is a magical moment for every photographer. "The photographer's favorite thing is to stare at his girlfriend. Every time he visits his girlfriend, she always looks extremely embarrassed. Once, her girlfriend asked him, "When do you want to see me and when will I get bored?" He replied, "until I can photograph your embarrassment just now, because this moment is a magical moment for me. In a photo contest, the photographer won the first prize. In the photo, we saw a skinny little girl with a vulture behind her. I heard that the little girl was skinny because she only ate one loaf of bread for two days and suffered from hunger. One day, unfortunately, she was chased by a vulture behind her. She took a step and the vulture took a step. She ran too hard to stop, and the vulture stopped. It turns out that vultures only eat the dead, not the living, so vultures are only waiting for the little girl to die. The little girl was very worried and thought, "if someone passes by, he can save me." Finally, a car drove by and the little girl thought she was saved. Unexpectedly, the photographer in the car just pressed the shutter and drove away. The jury commented on this photo: "The photographer captured a rare but once-in-a-lifetime scene, wonderful! Not long after, the photographer committed suicide and wrote in his suicide note: "If people are not moved by life, life is meaningless. I missed the most important magical moment in my life and was called the best photographer in vain. It turns out that the truly magical time is not a few minutes of sunset, but a friend who is willing to take four cameras, ten lenses, three tripods and a bag of film to accompany the photographer to chase the moving moment of sunset. It turns out that the truly magical moment is not the moment when his girlfriend looks extremely embarrassed, but the moment when the photographer feels love and being loved in his girlfriend's eyes. It turns out that the truly magical time is not the wonderful scene in the photo, but the key moment to save the little girl from death. Unfortunately, the photographer missed this moment, and he couldn't bear the guilt, so he ended his life. On New Year's Eve, 2002, a class of teachers and students went to Liannan to visit mountain children. We took many rare photos, including a little boy wearing rotten shoes, black soap for bathing, a child who ate candy for the second time in his life, a skinny horse, a child who was out of school, a muddy road to school, and so on. When you see these pictures, have you ever wondered what the real magical time is for them? Have you ever thought about bringing them a new pair of shoes? Give them happiness with candy? Support their agriculture with money? Give them hope to study? Maybe you have seen such pictures in a big newspaper and magazine, maybe you are no longer moved. However, "if people are not moved by life, life is meaningless." Please bring them the real magic time. bws/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl？ Board = photogalleryyoutsidhongkong action = display; Num = 1 124382644 There are many pictures about vultures 2006-10-18: 51:34 Supplement: Singpao/20060724.

Reference: ucc.edu/upload/G002/Niannan/magictime

Have you ever seen a vulture? They are a North American raptor. Most of their feathers are black, but their heads, necks and tails are white and appear bare. So their literal translation should be "vulture". As soon as they spread their long and wide wings, they can sweep across the sky like a gust of wind in Wan Li. They are fierce, often swooping down from the sky to grab their favorite prey, birds in the air, fish in the sea and rabbits on the ground. The bald eagle is similar to the United States in temperament, so it was selected as the national bird in 1782, which made other native American candidate birds (such as turkeys) very depressed. As a national bird, the vulture is worth a hundred times, and is called the "bird of Washington". Hunting and protection are prohibited in all states. The national seal uses its image of spreading its wings. Its right paw holds an olive branch with 13 leaves and its left paw holds 13 arrows, so it is also called a "winged bird". However, they are often wronged. For example, people often call bald political strongmen "vultures". The vulture is not bald, but has a beautiful white feather. Although the vulture has been banned from hunting, it has become increasingly rare since the 1950s. Is that the female biologist Rachel? Carson's Silent Spring-Spring has come, but there are no birds left to sing. The abuse of toxic chemicals, DDT and other pesticides and herbicides has destroyed the natural ecology and caused a dead silence in spring. Because Carson called for the protection of natural ecology, * * * finally promulgated the Endangered Species Protection Act, and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency announced in 1972 that DDT was strictly prohibited. Like other rare animals, vultures have gone through the process from extinction to resurrection. Now, forty years after the implementation of the Endangered Species Protection Law, vultures are flying high again. In the Potomac Valley, in Virginia National Wildlife Refuge, you can easily see vultures flying or perching. It is estimated that the number of vultures in eighteen States in the United States has increased from 500 pairs 40 years ago to 7,000 pairs at present. According to Xinhua News Agency, Washington 14, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that in view of the "significant increase" in the number of vultures in the United States, they can be removed from the list of endangered species listed in the Federal Endangered Species Act. Statistics show that the number of vultures in the United States has soared from 4 17 in 1963 to more than 7060 today. Vultures are America's national birds. It is a symbol of strength, courage, freedom and immortality. The main body of the American national emblem is a vulture with a shield pattern on its chest. Dale, director of the Fish and Wildlife Administration? Hall told the press that "the recovery of vultures can be said to be a great successful example of the whole country" and said that he would listen to the public's opinions on "vulture retreat". At the same time, the government expressed its hope to continue to strengthen the laws on wildlife protection in the future and introduce detailed guiding principles for human activities to prevent people's behavior from interfering with vultures or destroying their nests, habitats and feeding areas. 1940, the decrease in the number of vultures first attracted the attention of the American people, when the US Congress passed the Vulture Protection Act. However, in the following ten years, due to the use of pesticide D D T and excessive felling of nesting trees, the number of vultures continued to decline, which also contributed to the introduction of a series of laws to protect vultures. Environmentalists cheered and celebrated the increase in the number of vultures, believing that it was a victory for wildlife and environmental protection, as well as a victory for the Endangered Species Act.