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Ruppell Griffon Vultures’  bodies  are a mottled, chocolate brown color with a distinctive white feather ring around their bald heads and necks.

 

They have yellow eyes and soft white fluff that covers the purple skin on their heads.

 

Their sharp, pale yellow beaks are used for ripping and tearing meat from carcasses.

 

They have powerful legs and talons they use to rip meat and cling to the rock cliffs where they nest.

 

The Ruppell’s Griffon Vultures live  throughout central and western Africa. They can be in grasslands and dry areas.

 

Like most vultures, Ruppell's Griffon Vultures feed on carrion which is dead animals.

 

They mate for life, which may be forty or fifty years. In vulture courtship, a pair of vulture will circle close together near cliffs. They make large nests of sticks lined with grass and leaves. The females will often steal the sticks from other nests and the males arrange them.