Vulture

The Vulture is one of the Creatures in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Behavior
Since the Vulture lives most commonly in the hottest areas of the desert, any food it eats rots quickly. Thus you can mostly see them grouped around a carcass, even if the meat is spoiled. They will get defensive of anything they're eating, so they will attack any animals and players that wander too close.

Appearance
Trogos Acram resembles many modern age vultures found in our world such as lappet-faced and griffon vultures, with a stooped neck and sharp tipped beak for tearing open carcasses. Being much smaller than its Miocene relative Argentavis, Trogos Acram cannot be ridden, but can perch on a survivor's shoulder.

General
They will attack you when there is a corpse in the vicinity.

Strategy
As they will attack the rider and not the Dino, it is best to fight them with a pike as most tames have a hard time hitting them.

Weaponry
Ranged weapons like bows can be used while they are chasing after you, but when they come close, shooting them is less effective. Spears or a pike can be helpful as well.

Dangers
They will attack when a corpse is in the vicinity. They will target you even on your mount and will swarm when more vultures are present.

Weakness
They are fairly slow when flying and a player can run away even at base speed.

Taming
The Vulture is unable to be tamed through the standard tranquilize-and-feed methods, and must be tamed non-violently, but this can be difficult as they become aggressive at the presence of a corpse.

To feed it, place Raw or Spoiled Meat on the last slot of your hotbar, then approach and press use (default ) to feed it. You cannot feed them all the meat required for taming at one time, you must wait every couple of minutes until it is hungry again to feed it more until its taming meter is filled. The vulture will fly off every once in a while, and can easily be lost if one is not paying attention.


 * A set of may help during taming, as it the Vulture will become aggressive if you are near a corpse. This will also reduce the chance of roaming predators catching sight of you and attacking.
 * Nearby wild predators may try to attack the Vulture while you are feeding it. If the Vulture enters combat while being tamed, the taming progress will stall.
 * Vultures aggro when attacked or any time there is a corpse nearby. If you are attacked by another creature, the vulture won't react until you kill the offending creature, at which point it will attack due to you being near a corpse.  However, it will not attack if you are near an unconscious creature, so if you are taming a Vulture and are attacked by another creature, you can tranquilize the attacker without upsetting the Vulture.

Roles

 * Bodyguard: A Vulture perched on your shoulder can attack enemies that are close enough to the player, providing extra protection from attackers.(Level )
 * Meat Harvester: While the Vulture is perched on your shoulder, it automatically harvests meat when you stand in front of a corpse. Unlike other creatures, having the meat in the Vulture's inventory quadruples the spoil time, which, on Scorched Earth, cancels out the global halved spoil time. Because Vultures' inventories will not accept transfers of any item except, any fresh meat you want them to carry must be harvested directly by them.
 * Living Missile: The Vulture, thankfully a passive tame, is an outright dangerous creature. Tamed Vultures will not initiate combat with living targets even if set to Aggressive or whistled to "Attack my Target," but these beaked terrors become fierce combatants when an ally is attacked. They are capable of harassing enemy flyers in mid-air dog fights or being released on the ground to run down a fleeing foe. (Level and )
 * Swarmers: A swarm of Vultures can be one of the most devastating things in the game. A pack of just 6-8 can make very light work of and can easily kill,  and everything else you find in the caves (Note: these creatures can spawn at level 200 and above), making them great for artifact gathering. (Level  and )
 * Pet: Vultures may seem an ugly and undesirable pet to many, but they are as loyal and affectionate as any shoulder-mounted pet, and they can be the perfect spooky accessory to a macabre aesthetic outfit.

Notes/Trivia

 * The Vulture is one of if not the most accurate recreation of it's real life counterpart as things like the, and  are very exaggerated in size. The only other competition it has for an accurate modern animal would be the leech (if compared to the Giant Amazon Leech)
 * The Vulture seems to extend the duration of raw meat and spoiled meat in its inventory. You cannot place raw meat (or anything else other than rotten meat) into its inventory but if you let it harvest any dead bodies, it will store the raw meat in its inventory and make it last longer.
 * The Vulture is capable of doing melee damage while on your shoulder even while you are riding another mount.
 * While it is apparent that the Vulture is too small to ride, Helena decided to add a saddle with a x in her notes to let people know it can't be ridden.
 * Real Vultures are social animals that live in flocks, Ark's Vultures are occasionally seen in groups but can also be found on their own.
 * Much like other creatures, the Vulture can spawn out of the map