Скачать или смотреть Vulture Intelligence

On Aril 16th, upon arriving at our mews (raptor housing) during one of Colorado's typical late spring snowstorms, Peter immediately checked on all the birds. The heavy wet snow creates many difficulties and requires a lot of muscle work to keep everyone safe...see the video below on snow removal! After some hurried shoveling by Peter and Savannah, everything appeared to be stable. But a little while later, Savannah pointed out that our turkey vulture's log perch inside his cave had been moved substantially from its original position. After checking to see if one of the docents had moved the perch for some particular reason, we determined no human had moved it. Peter went to the vulture's enclosure and discovered that our vulture's ceramic heat emitter was off. A quick check revealed that the sticky, wet snow had managed to interrupt the circuit and trip the GFI outlet, turning the electricity off. The source of the moisture was quickly identified, dried off, and the heater was turned back on.

Peter then went to inspect the moved perch and saw that our vulture was now back inside his toasty cave. Prior to this, he had been sitting in the falling snow on top of his high perch, which was a bit odd considering the conditions. But in a “eureka” moment, as he looked at the new position of the perch in the cave, Peter came to the realization that the vulture had managed to pivot the perch from its original orientation (shown in the green outline) to the new position for one simple reason: the perch’s new position allowed the vulture to get within six inches of the ceramic heater, thereby keeping himself much warmer. It’s said that turkey vultures have a high degree of intelligence, and our accidental discovery confirms this, at least in our eyes. Here is a classic example of the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. It's no wonder that turkey vultures are the most common raptor in the United States!