Cinereous vulture

Cinereous vulture Temporal range: Miocene-recent[1]
Conservation status
Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Accipitriformes
Family:	Accipitridae
Genus:	Aegypius
Species:	A. monachus
Binomial name
Aegypius monachus (Linnaeus, 1766)
Range of A. monachus   Breeding   Resident   Passage   Non-breeding   Extinct   Extant & Reintroduced (resident)
Synonyms
Vultur monachus Linnaeus, 1766

The cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) is a large raptor in the family Accipitridae and distributed through much of temperate Eurasia. It is also known as the black vulture, monk vulture and Eurasian black vulture. With a body length of 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in), 3.1 m (10 ft) across the wings and a maximum weight of 14 kg (31 lb), it is the largest Old World vulture and largest member of the Accipitridae family.

Aegypius monachus is one of the largest birds of prey and it plays a huge role in its various ecosystems by eating carcasses, which in turn reduces the spread of diseases. The vultures are constantly exposed to many pathogens because of their eating habits. A study of the cinereous vulture's gastric and immune defense systems conducted in 2015 sequenced the bird's entire genome. The study compared cinereous vultures to bald eagles, finding positively selected genetic variations associated with respiration and the ability of the vulture's immune defense responses and gastric acid secretion to digest carcasses.