Vultures Are Bald for a Practical Reason
A vulture is a scavenging bird of prey. Its bare head is an adaptation, and finance borrowed the name for a particular kind of investor.
A vulture is a large scavenging bird that feeds mainly on carrion. The bare head is functional: feeding inside a carcass would foul feathers, and bare skin is easier to keep clean and can be sunned to kill bacteria. Vultures also have extraordinarily strong stomach acid, which lets them eat what would kill most animals.
- A scavenging bird. *Vultures circled overhead.*
- Someone exploiting others' misfortune. *Circling like vultures.*
- Vulture fund — an investor buying distressed debt cheaply. *A vulture fund bought the loans.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | vulture | A griffon vulture. |
| Plural | vultures | A group of vultures. |
| Group | kettle / wake | A kettle of vultures. |
| Related | carrion | Feeding on carrion. |
| Related | scavenger | An efficient scavenger. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Vultures find carcasses by sight or smell.New World species use smell; Old World ones rely on sight.
- South Asian vulture populations collapsed.Caused by a veterinary drug in cattle carcasses.
- The press circled like vultures.Figurative and unflattering.
Why vultures matter
- Disease control — they remove carcasses fast, limiting outbreaks
- Stomach acid — strong enough to destroy anthrax and botulism
- Diclofenac — a drug that killed millions of Asian vultures through cattle carcasses
- A kettle — vultures circling in a thermal
- Old and New World — two unrelated groups that look alike through convergent evolution
From Latin *vulturius*, from *vultur*, a vulture. The financial sense dates from the late twentieth century.
Why are vultures bald?
Because bare skin stays cleaner when feeding inside carcasses and can be exposed to sunlight, which helps kill bacteria.
What is a vulture fund?
An investor that buys distressed debt at a deep discount and pursues full repayment, often through the courts.