ScienceSkink

I will find you in every life (threat)

I am forever fascinated by the arms race between coelurosaurs and ceratopsians. Among the most famous rivals in palaeomedia growing up was Velociraptor and Protoceratops, Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, and of course I had to add two of my faves, Gorgosaurus and Styracosaurus!

The Moon

Hooded Vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus)

A small vulture species, the hooded vulture is extremely opportunistic, feeding on carcasses, raiding human rubbish tips, abattoirs, termite emergences, and even following hyenas and painted dogs in the hopes of getting a meal.

Unfortunately, this species is critically endangered, in the last 50 years, their population has declined by around 85%. Intentional and unintentional poisoning, hunting for traditional medicine and habitat loss, are all factors that have contributed to the status of this beautiful bird.

The bearded vulture, the ossifrage

The only known vertebrate with a diet of up to 90% bones, this magnificent bird will swallow small bones, but when they find a larger one this doesn't mean no dinner! Instead, the vulture will pick up the bone and fly anywhere between 50-150 metres before dropping the bone onto some rocks to shatter it. Then the bird will eat the fragments, and also the exposed bone marrow. Sometimes if it doesn't crack the first time the process will be repeated until the ossifrage is successful.

Sadly the bearded vulture is Europe's rarest vulture once seen throughout the mountain ranges of southern Europe, persecution for a belief of threat to livestock (the old name lammergeier meaning "lamb-vulture" originates from a belief that they killed lambs), as well as a lack of once abundant large herbivores on these mountain ranges has led to a decline in the numbers of these vultures.

The High Priestess

California condor (Gymnogyps californianus)

The story of the California condor is a compelling and emotional one. North America's largest flying bird, once abundant and fed upon the carcasses of mastodon, giant sloths, and saber toothed cats. In the modern age they experienced a dramatic decline thanks to DDT, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction to name a couple of the threats. In 1987, the entire world's population of 22 California condors was captured in a last-ditch attempt to save the species. Captive breeding by the San Diego Wild animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo, involving double-clutching and hand rearing chicks with puppets was slow but successful. In 1991 the first California condors were released into the wild, and today there are over 550 birds, most are flying in the wild!

The California condor is also the only known vulture to go through parthenogenesis, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance found that two of their condors had produced offspring that upon having a DNA test had no DNA from any males! This in my opinion makes the California condor a fitting species for The High Priestess card, a card representing mystery, intuition, and spiritual knowledge.

This card was also one of the most emotional to research, many of the sites I found had information on individual condors, such as the website the Venata Wildlife Society, they even have a memorials page and it was quite emotional seeing birds and the ages they were when they passed.