Egyptian vultures found to engage in puzzling cosmetic mud bathing rituals
Tuesday, May 16, 2017 - 08:32
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers working at the Doñana Biological Station in Spain has found that Egyptian vultures living in the Canary Islands dip their head, neck and chest in red soil to color themselves. In their paper published in in the journal Ecology, Thijs van Overveld, Manuel de la Riva and José Antonio Donázar describe their observations, a small experiment they conducted, and offer some opinions regarding the reason for the unique behavior of the birds.