The animal on the cover of Infrastructure as Code is Rüppell’s vulture (Gyps rueppellii), native to East Africa and the Sahel. It is named in honor of 19th-century German explorer and zoologist Eduard Rüppell.
This large bird has a wingspan of 7–8 feet and weighs 14–20 pounds. It has mottled brown feathers and a yellowish-white neck and head. Like all vultures, this species is carnivorous and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. They use their sharp talons and beaks to rip meat from carcasses and have backward-facing spines on their tongue to thoroughly scrape bones clean.
The Rüppell’s vulture is monogamous and mates for life, which can be 40–50 years long. Breeding pairs build their nests near cliffs out of sticks and lined with grass and leaves. Only one egg is laid each year—by the time the next breeding season begins, the chick is just becoming independent.
While normally silent, these are very social birds who will voice a loud squealing call at colony nesting sites or when fighting over food. This vulture does not fly very fast (about 22 mph), but it flies for 6–7 hours per day and ventures up to 90 miles from the nest in search of food. Rüppell’s vultures are the highest-flying birds on record; there is evidence of one flying 37,000 feet above sea level, as high as commercial aircraft. They have a hemoglobin variant in their blood that allows them to absorb oxygen efficiently while at high altitudes.
The IUCN conservation status of Rüppell’s vulture is critically endangered. Though loss of habitat is one factor, the most serious threat is poisoning. The vulture is not even the intended target: farmers often poison livestock carcasses to retaliate against predators like lions and hyenas, and hundreds of birds can be killed at a time. The total population is estimated to be 22,000 birds. Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world.
Color illustration by Karen Montgomery, based on a black and white engraving from Cassell’s Natural History. The series design is by Edie Freedman, Ellie Volckhausen, and Karen Montgomery. The cover fonts are Gilroy Semibold and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.