When one vulture drops to a carcass, others see it and congregate. It is not unusual to have 50 vultures waiting around a kill for a chance to feed. This relatively weak vulture depends on Lappet Faced Vultures or Maribou Storks to open up fresh carcasses. In Nepal and India the Griffon Vulture has been known to feed on bodies left on funeral pyres. Following the charge of The Light Brigade in the Crimea in 1854, shooting parties had to protect the wounded from these vultures.
Populations decline in areas under development by humans.
Human persecution and habitat destruction has caused schemes of transplanting young birds into France. One of 15 species of Old World vultures. Closely related to raptors but only distantly related to New World vultures, which are classified in the same family as storks. The Encyclopedia of Birds, Facts on File, Inc, New York, pp. Pennycuick, C.J. 1973.