As carrion scavengers, bearded vultures contribute to rotting carcass removal and help control disease within ecosystems.
Author: Noelle M. Brooks
Visual Artist | Commissions Available: noelle@noellembrooks.com
The Glitchy Iris
With a multitude of talents, Denise Kristin is a 22-year-old graphic designer, independent traditional artist, and variety streamer from Singapore. Harboring a strong interest in wildlife and nature, Denise specializes in creating symmetrical achromatic illustrations of animals filled with intricate patterns and details. Mostly utilizing pencil for her works, she creates stunning masterpieces from one of the most simple drawing tools.
Bearded Vulture
Bearded vultures prefer fatty bones for their oleic acid, associated with increased energy and foraging time optimization.
Bearded Vulture
Bearded vultures have declined 25-29% over the past 3 generations, except in northern Spain, due to poisoning, habitat degradation, and disturbance of breeding sites.
Bearded Vulture
The bearded vulture is known as "Lammergeier," German for "lamb-vulture," as they were mistakenly assumed to kill livestock. Today, they continue to face persecution for this myth.
Bearded Vulture
Bearded vultures perch on rocks, rather than tree branches, with a characteristic hunched shoulder position.
Bearded Vulture
There are up to 13 subspecies of bearded vultures, though most lack sufficient grounds to be considered.
May 2018: Bearded Vulture
Bearded Vulture
The bearded vulture is an extremely large vulture with a long, slender body and tail and large, impressive wings.
African Penguin
Now forbidden, African penguin guano was once excavated and processed into fertilizer and their skins were manufactured into gloves.
African Penguin
African penguins are popular in ecotourism as they allow humans to approach closely and watch as they interact with their environment.
Free-For-All: African Penguin
Shadowind digitally painted a beautiful display of the African penguin diving underwater to catch a fishy feast. With such vivid colors and lovely gradients, this piece perfectly captures the fluid, fast movement of the penguin as it dives into the sea with other members of its colony.
African Penguin
The primary ecotourism viewing site of African penguins is the colony at False Bay in Simons Town, South Africa with over 2,000 penguins.
Adoris Arts
Constantly on the move, young graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, and web-developer, Dorelys Smits, also known as Adoris, finds herself going through Flemish, Belgium, the Netherlands, and all about the European continent. Born in Brussels, the capital of Belgium known as the melting pot of Europe, Dorelys currently resides in Dilsen, Belgium. As a self-taught, front-end web-developer, Dorelys enjoys working in multiple creative fields including illustration, drawing, digital art, design, web development, and even photography.
African Penguin
Because food availability affects African penguin breeding and survival rates, food shortages in South Africa and Namibia can't maintain population equilibrium.
African Penguin
Both African penguin parents take part in incubating the egg for 40 days using a "brood patch," a patch of a bare skin at the base of the belly, to provide direct heat.
Happy World Penguin Day & Reminders
Happy World Penguin Day, everyone! World Penguin Day is an annual celebration of penguins that happens on April 25th of each year. This date coincides with the annual northward migration of penguins. Celebrate World Penguin Day with FaunaFocus this week! Free-For-all Don't forget about this month's Free-For-All competition. Submit your African penguin-inspired artwork by … Continue reading Happy World Penguin Day & Reminders
African Penguin
African penguins closely resemble the Galapagos penguins of the Pacific Ocean and Humboldt penguins and Magellanic penguins of South America.
African Penguin
African penguins are monogamous as pairs return to the same breeding sites year after year.
African Penguin
Juvenile African penguins initially have dark slate gray-blue feathers that darken with age in about 3 years.
African Penguin
African penguins can swim up to 20 km/h and can travel up to 110 km during each hunting trip, depending on where they forage.
African Penguin
African penguins are also called jackass penguins because they emit loud donkey-like brays, yells, and haws to communicate.
African Penguin Trivia
Do you think you know the African penguin? Test your knowledge of African penguin FaunaFacts with this trivia quiz!
Clarry Doll
Kirsty Dillon, also known as “Clarry” or “Clarrydoll,” is a full-time British artist and broadcaster currently working and residing in Manitoba, Canada. With a love of tea, dolls, and creativity, in general, she finds inspiration from nature, wildlife, and even mental health. Especially interested in birds and insects, her portfolio is filled with feathered, flapping subjects, such as blackbirds, owls, bees, butterflies, and even bats. About four times a week, Kirsty shares her creative passions on Twitch Creative with the goal of building a friendly community and making beautiful things for her viewers to enjoy.
African Penguin
Cape fur seals, sharks, kelp gulls, sacred ibises, mongooses, genets, leopards, and even feral cats and dogs prey on African penguins and their eggs.
African Penguin
The African penguin is endangered and is undergoing a population decline, as a result of commercial fisheries, oil pollution, and shifts in prey populations.
African Penguin
The black and white markings of the African penguin help to camouflage it from both, aquatic and aerial, predators.
African Penguin
African penguins are the most common penguin found in zoos due to their size and temperature requirements.
African Penguin
Male African penguins are distinguishable from females due to their colors and deeper, more robust bills.
African Penguin
African penguins have a longevity of 10-27 years and live longer in captivity than in the wild.
SketchAlong: April 2018
FaunaFocus has had its first SketchAlong! Several viewers tuned in for the Twitch livestream and sketched along with Noelle M. Brooks as she led them through the proportions and anatomy of the African penguin. Using digital materials, ink, and graphite, everyone expressed their own perspective of this peculiar avian. FaunaFocus Calendar
African Penguin
African penguin populations have decreased 50% since 1978, due to nesting and guano collection disturbance, habitat alteration, oil pollution, and competition with fisheries for food.
African Penguin
African penguins can no longer nest in guano due to overharvesting by humans and have begun nesting in open areas and artificial nest-burrows.