Vultures bathing captured by camera trap at Jbel Moussa

Vultures bathing in clean water captured by camera-trap at Jbel Moussa, northern Morocco.

These photos show a flock of Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus) enjoying their “bathing time” near a water source at Jbel Moussa. The images were captured by a camera-trap set up by our team at a small “pool” built by the local villagers to collect the water running from a nearby spring.

The vultures passing through this area during migration have the privilege of drinking and bathing in clean water. Unfortunately, however, the vultures can render the water a bit dirty very quickly 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 a 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’.