Competition for food between Neotropical vultures in forest

Abstract

Carcasses were provided at a gallery forest site in Venezuela to compare the feeding methods of four vulture species. Turkey Vultures or Lesser Yellow‐headed Vultures were always the first species to arrive. Black Vultures were most likely to arrive at large carcasses or those in open situations and were the only species to form large feeding groups. King Vultures were equally likely to arrive at small or large carcasses. There were marked differences in feeding technique, food selection, rate of feeding and bill morphology between Turkey, Black and King Vultures, and the level of aggression between species was low compared to intra‐specific aggression.