DID CRIMEAN WAR CHANGE FEEDING HABITAT OF GRIFFON VULTURES?

Griffon vulture - said to have feasted on dead horses

The Crimean War raged between October, 1853, and March, 1856. It pitted the Russian Empire against Ottoman, British and French forces. It was here that nurse Florence Nightingale, the lady with the lamp, came to fame. One of the battles inspired Alfred Lord Tennyson to write his famous poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade. Less well known is that the fighting may have changed, at least temporarily, the behaviour of certain birds, for instance the griffon vulture. That at least is the theory of  globetrotting clergyman and ornithologist Henry Baker Tristram who was familiar with this and other species from his travels in the Arabian desert . This is what he wrote in an edition of The Ibis, journal of the British Ornithologists' Union, some while after the cessation of hostilities.


As, happily for the traveller, camels do not die every day
under the weight of their water-skins, the griffon does not habitually visit the desert. 

Still he occasionally gives it a passing call, though, if his meal be deposited near an oasis, he is usually forestalled by the hyena.

On one occasion, a camel in our caravan having become foot-sore had to be slaughtered on the spot, and his burden distributed among the others. 

Our attendants selected the tenderest morsels for kouskous, the Arab broth, and it was not till the next morning that a vulture scented, or rather descried, his prey. 

That the vulture uses the organ of sight rather than that of
smell seems to be certain from the immense height at which he
soars and gyrates in the air. 

In this instance, one solitary bird descended, and half an hour afterwards was joined by a second. 

A short time elapsed, and the Nubian vulture appeared, self-invited, at the feast, and, before the bones were left to the hyena, no fewer than nine griffons and two Nubians had broken their fast. 

I should hesitate to assert that they had satisfied their appetites. 

I have observed the same regular succession of diners-out on other occasions. 

May we not conjecture that the process is as follows: "The griffon who first descries his quarry descends from his elevation at once. 

Another, sweeping the horizon at a still greater distance, observes his neighbour's movements and follows his course. 

A third, still further removed, follows the flight of the second; he is traced by another; and so a perpetual succession is kept up as long as a morsel of flesh remains over which to consort. 

I can conceive no other mode of accounting for the numbers of vultures which, in the course of a few hours, will gather over a carcase when previously the horizon might have been scanned in vain for more than one, or at the most two, in sight.

Does not this explain the immense number of vultures who were congregated in the Crimea during the siege of Sebastopol, where the bird was comparatively scarce before ? 

May not this habit of watching the movements of their neighbours have collected the whole race from the Caucasus and Asia Minor to enjoy so unwonted an abundance ? 

The Arabs believe that the vultures from all North Africa were gathered to feed on Russian horses in the Crimea, and declare that, during the war, very few griffons were to be seen in their accustomed haunts. 

The griffon, however disgusting his food, is by no means an
unamiable or disgusting bird. 

He is certainly cleanly in his habits, docile, and of remarkable intelligence. 

With his fellows he is good-tempered; and, voracious as he is, never grudges to share the feast with as many as choose to join him. 

There is none of the snarling and quarrelling of the canine tribe, nor any attempt to rob a weaker cousin of his portion, nor to devour a
savoury morsel in secret; but each of the company amicably
keeps his place, without attempting to eject his neighbour. 

For some months, we possessed two griffons taken from the
nest, who at length arrived safely in England. 

They never attempted to desert us, differing in this respect from our Lammergeyers, but remained contentedly about the tents or perched on the backs of the baggage-camels en route . 

They took a peculiar interest in taxidermy, scrutinising, head on one side, the whole operation of bird-skinning, and perfectly aware of the moment when a morsel would be ready, exhibiting a more than
ordinary excitement when they saw the skin drawn back over the
head, and knew that the whole carcase would soon be cut off for
them. 

One of these birds was of a desponding, querulous disposition, the other of a very different natural temperament, always
contented and cheerful, a universal favourite in the camp, while
his fellow received, I fear, many a sly kick for his complaints. 

They were able to fast for days; but, whenever such an opportunity as a camel's carcase presented itself, would be revenged on
their Lent. 

I have seen our pet attack the entrails of a camel, and, as his crop became distended, sink upon his breast unable to stand, till at length, even this position being too much for him, he lay on his side still eating, until overpowered and helpless he fell asleep. 

This enormous capacity for food, combined with the power of long abstinence, is a wonderful provision of Creative Wisdom for carrion-feeders whose supply is so uncertain, while the necessity for the immediate removal of offensive matter is so urgent. 

The strength of the vulture's stomach is equal to its capacity, for, on one occasion, one of our griffons devoured a half-pound pot of arsenical soap with no further inconvenience than a violent fit of vomiting. 

* Photo of griffon vulture by Stefan Krause via Wikimedia Commons.