Modelling the energy budget of a colonial bird of prey, the Ruppell's griffon vulture, and consequences for its breeding ecology

Colonial nesting is rare in birds of prey. In this study we develop further Pennycuick's (1979 ) model of energy balance to consider the implications of colonial nesting for the breeding ecology of Ruppell's griffon vultures. To achieve a realistic foraging range, and remain in energy balance, the birds need to do more than fill their crop once on each foraging trip. They must remain in the feeding area and digest some of this food and refill the crop to obtain sufficient energy to pay for the flight costs and have sufficient energy to satisfy their own requirements and that of the chick. Given the known distances that the birds have to travel to forage, it would be impossible for them to rear more than one chick. The low growth rate of griffon vulture chicks may be an adaptation to the low rate at which energy can be delivered by the parents. The optimal time for a bird to be away from the nest changes with the distance they have to travel. Assuming that one parent remains on the nest at all times to guard the chick, it is optimal for both parents to take turns to forage on the same day if the distance to a feeding area is under 150 km, but to switch to each parent being away for a whole day when the distance is greater than this. Soaring flight is essential for such a scavenger, because of the low energy expenditure. If a vulture relied on the more energetically demanding flapping flight its maximum foraging range would be under 40 km. Griffon vultures are known to be able to depress their basal metabolic rate, and this has major implications for their foraging range, which then becomes constrained by the flight speed rather than by the amount of food they need to obtain. Griffon vultures minimize energy expenditure on all activities, because even small increases in their energy demands have a large impact on the foraging range that the bird can use.