You would not want a vulture or a condor as a pet. Their featherless heads and necks, often covered with warts or loose-hanging skin, and large, hooked beaks make them rather unattractive. The largest is the South American condor, which is about four feet long with a multi-colored head, topped with a crown of loose skin called a carbuncle. The California condor is almost as large.
Although clumsy on the ground, condors (which are large vultures) have a graceful, soaring flight, hundreds or even thousands of feet in the air. South American condors, living high in the Andes Mountains, may fly as high as 20,000 feet. Rising on thermals (air currents), they soar in broad circles, often for hours without flapping their great wings. They have been provided with a keen sense of smell and the keenest eyesight of any creature and can spot a dead animal from as high as 5,000 feet. Something amazing happens when they find a dead animal. Although only one or two of these birds may be seen in the sky, when one drops down to feed on a carcass, others quickly appear in the sky, also dropping down to squabble over the dead animal.
We can see why the Creator designed them as He did. Their heads and long necks have no feathers so they can easily reach into the dead animal's body. The sharp hook on the end of their beaks helps tear off pieces of flesh. Their tongues, lined with “teeth” that point inward, move the food into their gullets. When several condors are present, a carcass is stripped to the skeleton in minutes. Frequently these birds eat so much they have difficulty becoming airborne again.
California condors are rare because many of the large animals they eat have been killed by man and so are scarce. These birds also have a slow rate of reproduction. They do not breed until they are six years old and lay only one egg every two years.
Although unattractive, vultures and condors are an important part of God's creation, and He has provided them with the features so necessary for life. They are helpful because they eat dead creatures that otherwise might decay and spread disease.
While vultures are suitably occupied in their way of life, they make us think of foolish people whose appetites are for the “dead things” of the world and who have not obeyed the important Bible verse, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:1515Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15)).
God's Word points to the right things to occupy us. A wise person who proved this said, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jeremiah 15:1616Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)). Are you a wise or foolish person?
ML-12/28/2008