The Vulture.

Species Examples: The four that sit in the tree from the Jungle Book

Habitat: Deserts, Beaches, Circling ominously overhead.

What strange looking birds they are, with their long necks, heads like a bald old men and gangly legs. Vultures may give you the fear when you spot them circling you in the middle of the desert, but are surely amongst the funniest birds in the world when you see them attempting to circumnavigate flat land. Their 'run' - if you can call it that, is more of a drunken wobble akin to watching Willow attempting to catch up with a busload of supermodels.

Imagine how many zebra carcasses would be
lying around if vultures didn't exist.

Within the vast and diverse genus of "Silly Birds" (which also includes parrots, humming birds, penguins et al) it is vital to establish why the vulture has adopted such a hilarious walk. Is it purely self entertainment? Is he trying to make us laugh? Or is it a bit of both? And why is this even important? Well, consider the parrot. Parrots are career entertainers. It's their job. Therefore, as funny as watching a parrot ride a little bicycle is, we know subconsciously that these high jinks are merely part of a finely tuned act. Thus the intrinsic humour of the parrot suffers as a result. Fear not though carrion fans - the vulture is happy to be silly in the wild. Happy to perform his comedy walk on an empty beach. Happy to amuse anyone who is willing to be amused. No crowd required.

Amusing? Certainly.
Funny? Perhaps not.

Another gold star for the vulture comes from their attitude towards fellow vultures. As a species they are very sociable, and can often be seen sunbathing and eating in groups. It has been suggested that they are too lazy to work alone. That they only eat food that has been killed for them by another animal. What nonsense. True, they are never seen 'shopping' for themselves, but this is a skill! Imagine getting fed every day without lifting so much as a wing! Clearly something for us all to aspire to.

Dead.

Good pet/bad pet:

We at Animal Reviews believe that vultures would make fantastic pets based on their generally excellent nature.

Celebrity Owners:

• Sven Goran Eriksson
• Diego Maradonna
• Hasselhoff reportedly has four condors (like vultures, but bigger. Excellent!)

Overall Vulture Score: 8.3/10

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