Griffon Vulture – Shadow of Cyprus Skies
High above the limestone cliffs of Episkopi, something enormous drifts on invisible columns of warm air – barely moving a feather, tracing wide, unhurried circles. The Griffon Vulture is one of the heaviest flying birds in Europe and one of the most ecologically vital. In Cyprus, it came within a handful of individuals of disappearing forever. It has not disappeared yet – and why it matters goes far beyond its astonishing size. What It Is An Eagle's Cousin, Built for Patience: 2.8 m Maximum wingspan 10 kg Maximum body weight 41 yrs Recorded maximum lifespan 1.43× Resting energy used while soaring The Griffon Vulture belongs to the family Accipitridae – the same family as eagles, hawks, and kites – but has evolved a radically different strategy: soaring rather than hunting, scavenging rather than killing. Its genus Gyps contains eight Old World species. Its closest former neighbour in Cyprus was the Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), which went locally extinct here by 1960 – a warning that went unheeded. Old World and New World vultures look nearly identical but share no recent common ancestor – a textbook case of convergent evolution: nature finding the same answer twice, independently. The Bird That Ancient Civilisations Called Divine The Griffon Vulture was inescapable across the ancient Mediterranean – and those civilisations paid attention. In Egypt,…
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