African lappet-faced vultures in Amboseli National Park, west of Namanga, Kenya

As the largest vulture in Africa, the lappet-faced vulture dominates other vultures when feeding and is even powerful enough to fend off a jackal! This impressive species is armed with a large and powerful beak, capable of tearing off the hides, tendons and other coarse tissue of its scavenged prey that are too tough for smaller scavengers. This enormous, broad-winged bird is easily recognised by its conspicuous size, bare, pink-skinned head and distinctive fleshy folds of skin, known as lappets, on the sides of its neck, for which it earns its common name. There are two subspecies of the lappet-faced vulture. The African subspecies Torgos tracheliotus tracheliotus has mostly dark brown to black feathers, which contrast starkly with the white thighs and white bar running across the leading edge of the underwing, clearly visible when in flight. The north-east African subspecies, Torgos tracheliotus negevensis, is altogether browner, including partially-brown thighs, with only some individuals showing white on the underwing, and those individuals formerly found in Israel also having pure white feathers on their backs. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.