Fox attacks vulture feeding on carcass

The Griffon Vulture panicked and attempted to take to the skies but struggled to leave the ground.

The pair circled each other, with the fox trying desperately to land a killer blow until the mighty bird eventually managed to take off.

The duel was captured on camera by wildlife photographer Mladen Vasilev, 30, from Bulgaria.

Mladen, who also works as a tour guide for the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, was checking on what is the only colony of Griffon Vultures in the country when he saw the duel.

He said the bird had been feeding on a carcass close to a BSPB nature conservation centre in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains.

"One of our main activities is to support the only colony of Griffon Vultures in Bulgaria," he said. "So we regularly put out carcasses to feed them and we have a special hide to monitor and photograph the process.

"One day I was in that hide photographing the vultures when suddenly all of them panicked and started to take off. Because I was inside I couldn't see what was going on.

"But then I saw this male red fox attacking one of the vultures and I started shooting. Of course, despite the size of the vulture, as a mammal the fox is much stronger so the bird was trying to escape.

"The vulture was quite heavy so he couldn't take off immediately and I had about ten seconds to take a few shots of him defending himself and the fox trying to bite him.

"After the vulture was in the air the fox marked his territory and ran away."