re: Lesser Vultures

["Wim Vader" <>]

        I once wrote a small note, (and had it rejected by the Ostrich as "not
proven"), called: "Wagtail eats hippopotamus", a title I was quite content
with.
The incident occurred in Dec. 1981 while I was watching the hippopotamuses
(hippopotami?) in the hippo pool in the Mara river in the Masai Mara
reserve of SE Kenya. One of them has a large open sore on its back,
possibly after fighting, and I was close enough to see that this was a
fresh clean sore, without any maggots in it. A Cape Wagtail kept picking
small bits of flesh from the shore and feeding them to its fledged , loudly
begging young. the hippo did not react at all.
        In my opinion small birds will use road-kills both as a source of food,
and of calcium.
        With best greetings from your once more snowy antipodes,

                                                Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
                                                9037 Tromsø, Norway