Turkey Vulture

Zeke came to the zoo in 2002, he was unreleaseable due to a permanent wing injury. Turkey vultures are migratory birds and spend their summers in Wisconsin soaring above fields. They can live up to 45 years old in captivity. Turkey vultures are the only bird of prey that hunt by smell as you can see by their larger nostrils, those nostrils are made to scavenge for dead carcass which is mainly what they eat. They have feet similar to a chicken so they don’t hunt for their food at all. To keep predators away they vomit. In hot and humid climates they also defecate on their feet to stay cool.