Who would have thought a vulture was a scaredy cat? :) The Egyptian Vulture is the first ever recorded bird ever to be protected by law. The Egyptian Pharaoh felt a kinship to this vulture and feeling that their job as natural cleaners was very important to the health of his kingdom, he forbade anyone to kill this bird. This crime was punishable by death. After this ruling, the bird came to be called "Pharaoh's Chicken." Today, the Egyptian Vulture is less fortunate and is declining in large parts of its range, often severely. In Europe and most of the Middle East, it is half as plentiful as it was about twenty years ago, and the populations in India and southwestern Africa have collapsed entirely. In the case of India, this apparently is attributable to the widespread use of the NSAID Diclofenac. Many famers poison vultures believing they promote disease�in fact, vultures do the opposite by cleaning up potential sites for diseases to spread. Egyptian vultures are specialists in egg-eating. They are among the only known birds in the world to use stones as tools. They will repeatedly strike at an abandoned ostrich egg with stones, and then use their beak to enlarge the hole and penetrate membrane. This behavior is not instinctive, but learned from other vultures, as the species is very intelligent. They also eat carrion and overripe fruit. Rendered in Poser 7 pro with no postwork. Models: Egyptian Vulture (me), cyclorama (daz)