Nubian Vulture

Nubian vulture Male Skull Replica or Lappet Faced Vulture measures 6.0 inches. Lappet Faced Vulture Skull is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA.

The Nubian vulture or Lappet-faced vulture lives throughout Africa and the Middle East, from the southern Sahara down to the Sahel, through east Africa to the centre of the country, and as far as northern South Africa.

In much of its range, this vulture occurs in dry savannah, desert or semi-arid areas that have only short grass, thorn bushes and scattered trees, and also on open mountain slopes as high as 4,500 m above sea level.

Open habitat is the ideal foraging environment but trees are also critically important to this species for nesting and roosting, the thorny species of acacia, terminalia and balanites being preferred.

The Nubian vulture or Lappet-faced vultures are one of the most solitary and shiest of Old World vultures – aside from during feeding time. Usually living in pairs, they gather in flocks of as many as 50 vultures and other raptors around carrion or near water.

They dominate all the other birds of prey near the source of food, carrying out some displays like bounding attacks, but spend more time doing these displays than feeding, returning later to the carcass.

The Nubian vulture use their strong bills to tear up tough skin and tendons. They will also steal food from other raptors that are feeding nearby. Often they feed first, being the best adapted to tearing up the skin to start the feeding.

This vulture is normally silent, but when at a feeding site, it grunts, hisses, growls, and yelps. It does not migrate, except for populations in West Africa, which move north during the rainy season, and south during the dry period.

Lappet-faced vultures are monogamous breeders and pairs mate for life. They are solitary nesters, preferring to be far distant from other pairs that are nesting. Intensive defense of the nest, courtship-feeding and mate-guarding make up the mating rituals.

The time of the breeding season is different, depending on the location. In East Africa Lappet-faced vultures breed throughout the year, but in southern Africa breeding is probably from May until mid-summer when fledging takes place, and those in the very north of the range breed from November until July (sometimes to September).

A pair of  Nubian vultures builds a large, bulky, flat nest out of small sticks, lined with dry grasses, at the top of a thorny tree.

They lay one egg which is white with rusty-colored splotches and is incubated by both parents for around 7 to 8 weeks.