But who forged this hybrid vulture?
Some readers might be familiar with the hoax of the Piltdown Man. In 1912, Charles Dawson announced that he had found the “missing link” between early apes and man near Piltdown, East Sussex. Bones and artifacts at the site were attributed to one individual that was given the scientific name Eoanthropus dawsoni (“Dawson’s dawn-man”). In 1953, scientists published evidence to show that the Piltdown Man was a forgery. It was composed of a human skull of medieval age, a 500-year-old lower jaw of an orangutan and chimpanzee fossil teeth. The identity of the forger remains unknown, but numerous suspects have been put forward (I can recommend the essays of Stephen Jay Gould about this peculiar case). Creationists regularly mention the hoax to highlight the alleged dishonesty of paleontologists that study human evolution, although scientists themselves exposed the Piltdown hoax. As Richard Dawkins once said: “Science. It works, b*tches!”
While looking into vulture hybrids, I came across another – lesser known – hoax. A forged hybrid between Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus) and Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura).
A Sea of Black Heads
Our story begins in the winter of 1937 when E.A. McIlhenny is trapping vultures at Avery Island, Louisiana. Late in the afternoon of the February 6, he checked the trap with four assistants and found the pen packed with Black Vultures. Then he suddenly discovered a peculiar individual.
In the sea of black heads, I noticed one red head, and remarked that there seemed to be a young Turkey Vulture in the catch. When, on handling the birds, this red-headed ‘buzzard’ was brought to me, I saw at once that it was a hybrid between the Black Vulture (Coragyps aratus atratus) and the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura septentrionalis). The predominating color and shape were those of the Black Vulture, but the beak, eyes, eyelids and fore part of the head were like those of the Turkey Vulture, as were also rear part of the head and neck, and all of the body plumage. The shape of the tail was as in the Black Vulture. The legs and feet were more Turkey Vulture than Black Vulture, both in coloring and in shape. The primaries were definitely Turkey Vulture. The remainder of the wing plumage was Black Vulture.
The putative hybrid was shipped by express Saturday afternoon to the US Biological Survey. Close inspection of the specimen revealed that it was not a hybrid. While describing the Turkey Vulture in the Handbook of North American birds, Palmer (1986) noted that “an individual, alleged at the time (McIlhenny 1937) to be a hybrid with the Black Vulture, proved to be the latter when red paint that has been applied to it wore off its head.”
Whodunit
Similar to the Piltdown Man, it is unknown who forged the Black Vulture x Turkey Vulture hybrid. Did McIlhenny himself apply the red paint, or is one of his assistants to blame? Or perhaps an unknown passerby decided to perform a practical joke. We will never know.
To this date, no reliable wild hybrids between Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture have been reported. But that does not mean that this particular cross is impossible. In an overview of raptors bred in zoos, Cade (1986) mentioned a captive hybrid between these two species. However, I could not verify the reliability of this particular case. Another mystery to explore.
References
Cade, T. J. (1986). Propagating diurnal raptors in captivity: a review. International Zoo Yearbook, 24(1), 1-20.
McIlhenny, E. A. (1937). A hybrid between turkey vulture and black vulture. The Auk, 54(3), 384-384.
Palmer, R. S. (1988). Handbook of North American birds (Volume 4). Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
Featured image: Black vulture (Coragyps atratus) © Charles J. Sharp | Wikimedia Commons
Avian Hybrids 