Vultures and Taxonomy

In our class, Population, we learned about taxonomy and how we can apply the taxonomy to the living things we see every day. To have a better understanding of taxonomy, we visited the Lincoln Park zoo and chose animals for each of us to study and research on our own. Below, is what I have learned about Vultures and what makes them different from other vultures and animals.

Lincoln Park Zoo, https://www.lpzoo.org/animal/cinereous-vulture#,.September 15, 2018

Cinereous Vulture, All, 2018.

Using the reference photo, recreated the image, and added descriptions about the taxonomy of the Cinereous Vulture.

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF VULTURES

The Apeygius Monachus, commonly known as the Cinereous Vulture, can be found in European Countries such as France, Italy, and Spain. In these countries, Cinereous Vultures live in habitats that can give the higher ground advantage, which is usually in forested areas with hills. In these areas Vultures will scout in groups or pairs, looking for carcasses. The Average Vulture will live up to 39 years, which is a very long time! An interesting thing about Vultures is that they have a certain type of hemoglobin in their blood, allowing them to absorb oxygen regularly, even at great heights like Mt. Everest.

Venn Diagram of 3 Living Organisms

I collaborated with two of my classmates, NB and WH. Together we created a venn diagram comparing our organisms. I learned that even though our organisms do not have very similar morphological features, they have very common behaviors. Our organisms are multicellular, and have to obtain their food source from other resources. It was difficult to find what makes a seal and a vulture similar, but we came to the decision that seals and vultures will do what they must to survive, but eating whatever they can.

Taxonomic Level	Your organism’s group	Key characteristics of the group
Kingdom	Animalia	Multicellular and Heterotrophic
Phylum	Chordata	A Chordata has notochord which is a hollow dorsal nerve.
Class	Aves	Warm-blooded, and covered in feathers
Order	Accipitriformes	Sharply hooked beak Long wings
Family	Accipitridae	An animal of prey, that looks for mammals and basically eats meat
Genus	Aegypius	Aelian describes the “halfway eagle and vulture”
Species	Aegypius monachus	This is the scientific name for the Cinereous vulture

SET THEORY STATEMENTS

cinereous vulture Є Feathered animals
Cinereous Vulture is an element of feathered animals set.

cinereous vultures Є Carnivore
Cinereous Vulture is an element of the carnivore set.

cinereous Vulture Є Winged animals
Cinereous Vulture is an element of the winged animal set.

cinereous vulture Є Northern Africa
Cinereous Vulture is an element of the northern africa set.

cinereous vulture Є Land Animal
Cinereous Vulture is an element of a land animal.

cinereous vulture Є ~(Sea Animal)

Cinereous Vulture is an element of the opposite of a land animal set.

cinereous vulture ⋂ Grey Seal = {Pack Animals, Carnivore}
Cinereous Vultures and Grey Seals intersect each other because they are both a part of the carnivore
and pack animals set.

I learned a lot from this action project, and about Cinereous Vultures. I really found taxonomy to be interesting, and it is an important concept that is seen everywhere. Without taxonomy, there would be a lot of confusion and questioning of what makes a species its own.

CITATIONS

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22695231/0

https://www.lpzoo.org/animal/cinereous-vulture

https://www.arkive.org/cinereous-vulture/aegypius-monachus/

https://www.4vultures.org/vultures/cinereous-vulture/