Species Fact Profile: Vulturine Guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum)

                                                      Vulturine Guineafowl

                                            Acryllium vulturinum (GR Gray, 1840)

Range: Northeast Africa, from southern Ethiopia into northern Tanzania

Habitat:  Dry Sparsely-Wooded Grasslands

Diet:  Seeds, Roots, Tubers, Small Invertebrates, Small Vertebrates

Social Grouping:  Flocks up to 25

Reproduction: Lays 4-8 (possibly up to 18) cream-colored eggs in a grass-lined scrape on the ground.  Multiple hens may share a nest and share incubation duties.  Incubation 28 days. Chicks are precocial and fledge at 10 weeks, sexually mature at 2 years

Lifespan: 15 Years

      Conservation Status:  IUCN Least Concern

• Largest of the guineafowl species.  Measures 61-71 centimeters long, with a round body and small head.  Weigh 1-1.6 kilograms.  Males are slightly larger than the females.  Wings, neck, legs, and tail are longer than those of other guineafowl species
• Sexes look alike.  Body plumage is black with fine white speckles, except for the breast, which is bright blue.  The face and neck are bare; the face is blue, darkening to black, with a small ruff of brownish feathers at the back of the neck.  There is a cape of long, glossy blue and white feathers around the neck.  Juveniles similar to adults, but duller
• Very terrestrial, if confronted with danger with run rather than fly (speeds up to 35 kilometers per hour).  Roosts in trees at night for safety
• Males can be very aggressive not only to one another (sometimes fatally so) but to females; even though the sexes look alike, they can often be distinguished by behavior and posture
• Genus name translates to "small peak," (absent the crest seen in many guineafowl), species name means "vulture-like" in reference to naked head and neck
• Hunted locally for food, but population is considered secure in wild