Passion and Purpose have hatched!

As our campus community goes about the business of making lives better, a family of black vultures have settled on campus to make theirs. For the past seven weeks, the happy family have nested and cared for their young in a corner of the courtyard across from dental hygiene’s administrative offices. “Many people including housekeeping, facilities personnel, and people from the medical school have come to check on the mama vulture daily,” says Jo Ann Jordan, RDH, director of the dental hygiene program. “They’re quite amazing and don’t bother anyone.” Director Jordan and her colleague, Martha Browning, academic programs coordinator, have named the matriarch of the family, Honeywell and the patriarch, Pretty Boy. Director Jordan says, “Pretty Boy is his name because he was always fixing and cleaning himself while Honeywell dug for the nest.” The expectant parents cared for their two eggs for about five weeks prior to Passion hatching sometime during the last weekend in June and Purpose hatching on Tuesday, June 30th. Black vultures are a common resident in central and eastern Texas and are known to maintain monogamous, long-term bonds. They are seen as devoted parents who feed their young for as long as 8 months and create strong social connections to them. While the sight of a vulture tends to provoke a feeling of revulsion in most, some Native American tribes have associated vultures with the qualities of resourcefulness, loyalty, and patience.