The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is named for the tufts of hair beneath its beak. It is the Alps' largest bird and is one of the rarest raptors in Europe. It nests on high rock ledges and inhabits exclusively high mountainous areas in southern Europe, the Caucasus, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and Tibet. It is also known as the lammergeier, which means "lamb-vulture" in German. Eighty percent of the bird's diet consists of bone and bone marrow. The lammergeier is a scavenger; after finding a picked-over carcass, the bird will drop it from a tremendous height to shatter it into swallow-able pieces. Believing that the vultures would carry off babies, concerned parents hunted the birds to the brink of extinction. The vultures were completely eradicated from most areas in Eastern Europe by the 1990s.Today, the vultures have been categorised as "least concern" by the IUCN thanks to having a large range of habitats and the efforts of various environmental groups.
