Reader Damon Williford sent some photos of an interspecific interaction between birds over food; I’ve numbered the photos to correspond to his text below:
Attached are a series of photos featuring competitive interaction between a Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) and several Crested Caracaras (Caracara cheriway) in South Texas during January of this year. A pair of adult caracaras claimed the remains of what appeared to be a rabbit (1). They were driven off by a an adult Black Vulture (2). But before the vulture could enjoy its ill-gotten meal it was challenged by a juvenile caracara (3-7). The vulture won Round 1 but was being stalked by another juvenile caracara (8). Round 2 ended with the vulture being chased away by the second juvenile caracara (9-16). The juvenile was confronted by an adult and the adult managed to convince the juvenile to abandoned its hard-earned meal without the use of violence (17-19). This might be because a juvenile caracara has a lot more to fear from an adult of its own species than from an adult New World vulture.
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19. The winner!!!
Jerry, where can I submit bird photos for your review?
Click on the Research Interests link at the top of the page for an email address. Title your email ‘Readers’ Wildlife Photos’.
Thank you, Mark
A great and extended documentation of recent dinosaur interactions! And in the end, one dino gets the prize.
Fascinating set of interactions!
Thanks for the interesting story-by-photo. A stark reminder that survival is competition.
Cool sequence. Thanks Damon.