Vultures use a 'follow the leader' strategy to find food across thousands of miles.

Vultures are masters of social foraging, a behavior extensively studied by researchers like Thomas Alerstam and others at institutions such as the University of Oxford. Because carcasses are unpredictable and widely scattered, individual vultures cannot rely on luck alone. Instead, they form what scientists call a 'local enhancement' network where each bird acts as a visual sensor for the group. Research published in journals like 'Nature Communications' shows that Gyps vultures can monitor neighbors up to 3 miles (5 kilometers) away. When one vulture spots food and begins a characteristic controlled descent, it triggers a chain reaction. This 'network effect' allows a single discovery to be communicated across a colony spanning over 10,000 square miles (25,000 square kilometers) in just hours. Once the birds congregate, a complex social hierarchy takes over to manage the feeding process. Larger species or more dominant individuals typically feed first, which actually speeds up the process by opening the tough hides of large mammals. This organized chaos ensures that the maximum number of birds can feed before the carcass decays or attracts dangerous mammalian predators like hyenas.