Re: Vulture warm up

["Luis Oscar Romero" <lor@fibertel.com.ar>]

Couldn't be that they are just strechting muscles after a period of immobility, 
just like cats and dogs do when they wake up?
  
  
Luis Oscar Romero, lor@fibertel.com.ar 
2009-05-07  
----- Receiving the following content -----  
From: jrc  
Receiver: quailspg  
Time: 2009-05-06, 19:15:09 
Subject: Re: Vulture warm up 


No, I don't think we can make that assumption -- according to the photos,  
they are also doing it on cloudy days without much radiant heat input  
available to them. Perhaps they are doing it to cool off ? After all,  
folded wings do make pretty good insulators and can trap a lot of body  
heat. 
JimC 
----- Original Message -----  
From:  
To:  
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 3:24 PM 
Subject: Vulture warm up 


> Listers -- 
> 
> Here are some very nifty pix taken very recently by a friend of a friend 
> in Fort Collins, Colorado. 
> 
> http://picasaweb.google.com/heidemom/Vultures?authkey=Gv1sRgCNuQpdaq8qHu6wE&feat=directlink
>  
> 
> They were taken in the morning, so can we assume the birds had their wings 
> spread to warm up? If this is so, what does it say about a vulture's 
> ability to regulate its body temp? (I don't think many other types of 
> birds engage in this behavior.) Does this behavior (the urge -- or need -- 
> to warm up in the sun) say anything about your typical Mesozoic theropod? 
> Or are vultures a special case due to their scavenging habits (especially 
> low metabolism, maybe???)? 
> 
> -- Donna Braginetz 
> 
> 
> 
>