In this video, you can see a South African couple talking about the preservation of the endangered Cape Vulture or Cape Griffon. You can also see the unique point of view of a vulture soaring through the sky.

Cape Vultures are seen as predators. However, they don’t kill their food. Instead, they hunt for carcasses and feast on the remains. The feet or claws of the vulture are made for walking, and they can’t lift prey with it. A group of 50 vultures is able to reduce a sheep or impala carcass to skin and bones in 20 minutes. This beast is able to eat up to 10% of its body weight, which would be a lunch of 1kg. Feeding on carcasses may sound like a disgusting thing to do, but the vulture washes in clear water after every feast. So they are quite hygienic.

The Cape Vulture is the heaviest vulture in South Africa; it averages around 9kg. Although this bird is massive for its species, it prefers to fly at heights of 8000 meters. This land bird-like many others don’t fly by flapping its wings; it is too heavy for that. However, the vulture flies by soaring down mountain cliffs, which is also its habitat, as seen in the video. Another method of flying, which is visible on a game drive in Kruger National Park, is by using the rising columns of warm air called thermals. These thermals are not all too big, and that’s why a vulture flies in small tight circles to use these columns as they seek for carcasses.