Painted Vultures: A Lightning Subspecies
Breed: Skydancers, Wildclaws

Primary Colour: Stone
Secondary Colour: Stone
Tertiary Colour: Stonewash – Denim (Lightning Farm), Teal – Spruce (Tempest Spire), Goldenrod (Highland Scrub), Blood – Maroon (Carrion Canyon)

Primary Gene: Poison
Secondary Gene: Toxin
Tertiary Gene: Gembond

Lore: It is believed that these hardy dragons originated in Carrion Canyon. Mainly due to their unique diet, consisting mostly of bone fragments. When healthy, these scavengers have shiny ‘gems’ growing all over their body. Natives of Carrion Canyon usually have a diet consisting almost entirely of bone and have deep red growths.

Dragons not native to Carrion Canyon usually have different colors of gems due to maintaining a mixed diet. Their gem color has also been shown to be affected by high concentrations of elemental energy. Painted Vultures from Tempest Spire usually have gem shaded in the aqua range due to the density of lightning there, while those of the Lightning Farm have slightly darker gems in the greyish-blue range. Painted Vultures with a healthy and mixed diet without high concentrations of elemental energy will usually end up with deep golden color gems.

The unique colors and patterns of their feathers are due to the Painted Vulture rubbing pigmented clays and dust into their feathers. They prefer a mix of dark blue-greens and dark reds. The richness of the colors are considered a social status symbol to others of the subspecies.

These dragon do well in almost any clan as they are very hardy creatures. The exception to this is environments with too much water. To combat this, natives of the stormy Tempest Spire started to rub colorful, synthetic oils onto their feathers instead of chalks and clays. They are very well suited to acting as a hunter or gatherer.

Other: This subspecies must have lightning eyes

Naming Meaning

Scientific Name: Torgos tracheliotos (Forster, 1791)

English: Lappet-faced Vulture, Nubian Vulture
AFR: Swartaasvoël

Scientific classification:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Acciptriformes / Falconiformes
Family: Accipitridae
Genus: Torgos
Species: tracheliotos

“Torgos” is New Latin derived from Greek for a vulture; probably akin to Old English “storc” stork

The Lappet-faced or Nubian Vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) is an Old World vulture. It is endemic to the Middle East and Africa, where it is found from the southern Sahara to the Sahel, down through east Africa to central and northern South Africa. They nest in large flat nests in thorny trees and usually lay one egg per year.

Distribution, Habitat and Status
Endemic throughout Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea; Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Oman, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda; United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Thought to be extinct in Syria, Israel, Jordan and the occupied Palestinian Territory.

Lappet-faced Vulture inhabits dry savannah, arid plains, deserts and open mountain slopes, up to 3,500 m, with isolated trees such as flat-topped acacias where it may build a nest.

The African population is at least 8,000 individuals, and there may be 500 in the Middle East. This gives a total population of at least 8,500 individuals, roughly equivalent to 5,700 mature individuals. Breed and roost at the top of tall Acacia, Balanites and Terminalia trees.

Distinctive Behaviour
Is a solitary rooster and builds its stick-nests in pairs at the top of thorny trees such as the Acacia, Balanites and Terminalia trees. They are dominant at a carcass and are able to tear the carcass open allowing other vultures to feed.

Appearance
The Lappet-faced vulture has the largest wingspan of any other vulture in Africa approx. 2.25m, they have a much shorter neck with a powerful sharp beak and bill. They are the very big vultures standing between 78-115 cm tall. They have square wings, in flight very black looking with white thighs and white bar running across leading edge of underwing. Bald, pinkish-skinned head, which changes colour with temperature or mood. Weight 4.4 – 8.5kg.

Reproduction
The female lays a single egg in a large (2m) wide nest made of twigs and shares the responsibilities of incubation and feeding with her lifelong mate, the pair breeds in winter in South Africa. Lappet-faced vultures often build only one nest, although it is also common to have one to three nests that are used alternately, and these nests are used year after year. The breeding season varies across this bird’s extensive range.

The incubation period is 54 to 56 days and duties are shared by both parents. Chicks fledge between 125 to 135 days but will stay with the parent birds for longer.





https://www.vulpro.com/about/vultures-of-southern-africa/


Familiar: Shatterbone Vulture

Purchased on 1/12/2020 from Dark Internet Hatchery for 35kT. Move to Specials subspecies page 5 in hibernal Den. Use in summer for 4th July Gate Guard.