Vultures - Disney Animals

You can spot multiple vulture species on your visit. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom park, look for lappet-faced vultures near the Tree of Life and American black vultures at Rafiki’s Planet Watch. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, spot Rüppell’s griffon vultures on the savanna. And to see native turkey vultures around the Walt Disney World resort, just look up!

Vultures in the Wild
Vultures are Earth’s caretakers—they keep the planet clean by eating dead animals. There are 23 species of vultures and they live on every continent except Antarctica. Lappet-faced and Rüppell’s griffon vultures are native to Africa, while black and turkey vultures are native to the Americas..

Meet the variety of vulture species living at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Lappet-faced Vulture
The largest vulture in Africa, this species has a wingspan reaching up to 9 feet (2.7 m) long. With one of the largest beaks of all birds of prey, they can tear into the thick hide of large animals, even a buffalo’s. It’s no wonder they’re known as the “king of the vultures.”

Rüppell’s Griffon Vulture
Known for their lifelong bonding and social characteristics, these vultures nest on open cliff ledges in colonies that have up to 1,000 breeding pairs.

Turkey Vulture
These vultures are born with a dark gray head that changes to reddish-pink as they mature. Instead of building nests, they lay eggs (usually 2 at a time) on the ground in a dense brush or in hollow logs.

American Black Vulture
This species is smaller than turkey vultures and are known for not being greedy eaters. They share food with their family and feed their young for months, even after they have left the nest.

The Walt Disney Company is passionately committed to the protection of vultures and their natural habitats.

Threats to Vultures
There are many worldwide dangers facing these magnificent, misunderstood birds.

Poisoned Food
Vultures are scavengers that eat dead animals. When vultures eat dead animals that were given a veterinary drug called diclofenac, the vultures die. This has driven the Asian vulture species to near extinction. In Africa, farmers poison carnivores they believe harm their livestock, and when the vultures consume the poisoned animals, they too die. Additionally, some poachers intentionally lace discarded carcasses in order to poison vultures so they don’t circle in the sky and alert wildlife authorities to the location of the poachers’ illegal activities.

Human Dangers
Vultures face additional threats from human activities including hunting, electrocution by electrical wires, collisions with wind turbines and habitat loss due to development.

Save the Scavengers
Support from the Disney Conservation Fund has helped nonprofit organizations in Africa and Asia raise community awareness of the importance of vultures to ecosystems, train local people to monitor and protect vulture populations and reduce threats to vultures, including poisoning by certain veterinary drugs used to treat livestock.