What to Know
- Saturday, Sept. 1
- LA Zoo and Botanical Gardens
- Included with zoo admission
Vultures?
As in the bald-of-pate, long-of-neck birds that are frequently seen in spooky cartoons, scary movies, and storybooks?
These big birds do, of course, exist in the real world, beyond the page and screen, and they so often get a less-than-kind reception from the world o' humans, thanks to an enduring reputation that their fictional counterparts haven't always helped.
The LA Zoo and Botanical Gardens rightly applies the word "misunderstood" to the vulture, but there are ways to dispel the bird's sometimes negative rap and show the world just what the striking and elegant flyers contribute, daily, by just doing the vulture-y things they do.
And those rap-dispeling ways shall fly high during International Vulture Awareness Day, which will alight at the LA Zoo on Saturday, Sept. 1.
How to join the wing fling? Your zoo admission gets you in, hurrah.
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What hours should you beak, we mean keep, in mind? Ten in the morning to 3 o'clock.
What will go on at this birdly turn of events?
Prepare for keeper walkabouts focusing on the "magnificent" and "charismatic" birds, oh yeah. Dolly, a California condor, and Cacique, a king vulture, will be the wide-of-span celebrities you'll encounter.
There shall be kid activities, too, like "Color Me Condor" or the creation of a "vulture-inspired necklace."
Screenings of "The Condor's Shadow," a documentary following Golden State-based efforts to improve the condor population, and a World of Birds show "... featuring endangered Cape vultures, which are among Africa's largest raptors," are also on the schedule.
So what do you know about vultures, beyond what fantasy and fiction have shown?
That carrion is their go-to food source, that they're generally known for mating for life, and that a group of vultures is often called a kettle or committee?
There's so many marvels in the vultureverse, and entering it, for a couple of hours, can broaden even the biggest avian buff's knowledge of these impressive and incredibly important birds.
