It was feeding time for the vultures at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park yesterday when Kongo passed by.  Vultures are interesting birds and provide valuable services by cleaning up carrion in the wild but these are images you wouldn’t want to see anywhere outside of a zoo, like if you were trekking across the desert and one of them landed next to you.

The buff-colored Egyptian Vulture is a beautiful bird in a macabre sort of way.  It has a regal look about it and indeed in ancient Egypt these birds were considered sacred to the god Isis and hieroglyphs of the vulture were symbols of ancient Egyptian royalty.

Turkey vultures, on the other hand, don’t seem so regal although they are great aviators.  In the images below a turkey vulture digs into to a rabbit carcass deposited by the park staff.  The turkey vultures have to fight off the local crows who show up for feeding time too.  The birds are fed six days a week at Safari Park.

So there were these two turkey vultures finishing off a clown in the desert.  One vulture says to the other, “Does this taste funny to you?”

Travel safe.  Have fun.