Why do African savannah vultures, as birds, not grow hair on their necks?

This is to allow the vultures to dissipate heat better. Because the temperature in Africa is very high, after a long period of evolution, vultures no longer grow hair on their necks.

Vultures are carrivorous animals, because they often have to stick their heads into the belly of animal carcasses to eat internal organs, and the absence of hair on their heads can prevent carrion from sticking to their heads and necks, and they can keep them clean, which is also the result of long-term evolution.

Because vultures live in the savannah, the weather is hotter, and it is easier to dissipate heat without hair.

Because the African savannah is hotter, not growing hair can better dissipate heat.

Vultures and eagles are similar in appearance, but their habits are completely different. Eagles are typical birds of prey, specializing in preying on small animals, even those the size of sheep.

According to their own imagination, people count the eagle as a bird of prey, believing it to be the same kind as the eagle. In fact, the vulture can neither attack nor catch any animals, at most they only eat dead animals. Only the most hungry vultures attack live animals, and most of its prey is lost young animals.

The eagle's claws are not as sharp as those of an eagle, and it is unable to catch running animals, let alone kill them. At best, it can only grip the carcass of the animal. The eagle's long beak is just a tool for tearing apart carrion.

When the vulture eats, it has to put its head all the way into the carcass of the animal, and when it raises its head again, there is no flesh or blood on its bare neck without feathers. This is extremely convenient for the vulture. In addition, since the vulture lives in the hot Gobi, a bare neck is also more conducive to heat dissipation.

It can be seen that the eagle has no hair on its neck, which also makes sense.

Why are scavenging vultures not poisonous? The decay of dead animal corpses generally releases large amounts of bacteria and viruses, such as botulinum toxin and botulinum toxin. Carrion contains toxins, which ordinary animals dare not eat, and after eating them by mistake, they will easily get sick and even poison and die.

For vultures, carrion is a beautiful meal, and after eating it, it is still unharmed.

And the carcasses of animals in nature, some of them died of normal causes, and some of them died of disease. Vultures are not resistant to carrion, and experiments have confirmed that they can also eat the remains of animals that have died of rabies virus, swine fever and anthrax. Why can vultures, accustomed to carrion, not get sick?

This is because vultures have an extremely strong digestive system, the acidity in the stomach is 10 times higher than that of human gastric acid, and such a high concentration of gastric acid can even corrode metals, so it can easily kill most harmful germs in carrion and protect vultures from infection.

Although stomach acid is powerful, there are still some difficult bacteria that can survive in the vulture's intestines, such as Clostridium and Clostridium, both of which are extremely lethal to other common animals. However, these two microbial communities not only exist in the large intestines of vultures and live in harmony with vultures, but also form a mutually beneficial relationship with them.

In addition, due to long-term exposure to pathogens, vultures have also evolved a strong immune system, possessing certain strong antibodies in their bodies that can effectively protect them from germs.

What's more, although vultures eat substances full of germs, they excrete substances that are harmless. Vultures excrete when they eat, and their excrement is also highly acidic, which can sterilize and disinfect their legs and carcasses, and curb the spread of disease.

Vultures are generally distributed in Africa, in order to adapt to the hot climate and facilitate heat dissipation, so the neck does not grow hair, and the neck is hairless and will not stick to blood stains when eating, causing bacteria to breed.