Vultures bathing in clean water captured by camera-trap at Jbel Moussa, northern Morocco.
The photos below show a group of Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) bathing near a water source at Jbel Moussa. The images were captured by camera trap set by Rachid El Khamlichi and Mohammed Karim El Haoua. The small ‘pond’ is built by the local villagers to collect the water running from the spring.
The vultures passing through this area during migration have the privilege of drinking and bathing in clean water. Of course, the vultures can render the water a little bit dirty as shown in photo 2, but it gets cleaner again as soon as the vultures leave.
The camera trap captured several images, and one of them showed a Griffon Vulture with a colour-ring code ‘FMO’ on white background. This vulture was ringed in the nest on 15 May 2014 at Les Grands Causses, Midi-Pyrénées, France.
Egyptian Vultures (Neophron percnopterus) were also seen drinking in this waterhole.
See also this: Barbary macaques and vultures at Jbel Moussa.
Thanks to Philippe Lécuyer (LPO Grands Causses) for the life history of ‘FMO’.