Maxima Gomez-Palmer ’26 on studying behavior of endangered Egyptian Vultures in Spain

There are a lot of unique ways that Carleton students spend their summers, but probably not many involve driving a cow carcass up a mountain and hiding behind a tree to observe hundreds of vultures as they descend. That exact situation, though, was a highlight of the summer for Maxima Gomez-Palmer ’26. 

Gomez-Palmer spent last summer studying Egyptian Vultures in Tarifa, Spain as part of an internship with the nonprofit Fundación Migres and Boise State University’s Raptor Research Center. In addition to conducting field work such as seabird counts, songbird banding, and raptor trapping, Gomez-Palmer researched the behavioral ecology of Egyptian Vultures, an endangered species that suffer high mortality from the many wind turbines along the Strait of Gibraltar in southern Spain. 

“Scientists have put up feeding sites further inland to try to lure them away from the turbines to reduce mortality,” explained Gomez-Palmer. “They have cameras set up at the two feeding sites and they asked me if I would be interested in analyzing the camera footage. And I was like, ‘Absolutely!’” 

This led to a mixture of field work and statistical analysis of more than 50,000 trail camera photos as Gomez-Palmer studied the behaviors of the vultures at the feeding sites and their interactions with other species that visit. 

“I created a giant spreadsheet of detailed observations, it was probably over a thousand rows,” she said.

Although Gomez-Palmer hadn’t heard of Egyptian Vultures before the project, her interest in birds was not new. She founded Carleton Birders, Carleton’s only birding club, in the spring of her freshman year. She now leads bird walks, hosts ornithologists on campus, and helps engage students in anything and everything bird-related. 

Her love of birds drove her search for an internship the summer after her sophomore year. 

“I googled ‘Spain bird internship’ because I have family in Spain and I love birds, and this was the first thing that popped up,” she said. Although the deadline to apply was two days after she found the position, she managed to pull together letters of recommendation and submit an application just in time. 

Gomez-Palmer had done some research with anole lizards in Professor of Biology Matt Rand’s lab, monitored snakes in the Anderson basement, and took Behavioral Ecology with Senior Lecturer in Biology Annie Bosacker, which she said “got her hooked.” But she had never researched birds before. She was also interested in experiencing how research abroad differed from the U.S. 

“There were many stark contrasts,” she said. “Even the common names of all the animals are completely different.” 

She also noticed differences in the style of her mentors. 

“The way they share information is more like a story instead of a lecture,” she said. “They are deeply passionate about their work and really great mentors.”

After returning from Spain, Gomez-Palmer presented her findings at a conference held by the Raptor Research Foundation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her work provided insight into interactions between Egyptian Vultures and Griffon Vultures, a larger and more hierarchically dominant species, and the timing of Egyptian Vulture visits to feeding sites. This could help inform efforts to maximize conservation using the feeding sites. 

Gomez-Palmer said it was daunting to present her work exclusively to people with PhDs in ornithology and ecology. However, this allowed her to engage in conversations at a more advanced level and meet people established in the field, such as the past president of the Raptor Research Foundation. 

“The way fellow researchers at the conference spoke with me, it was like we were immediate friends,” she said. “Everyone in the raptor and ornithology world is just so friendly. They were all in field pants and hiking boots and it was very homey.”

Gomez-Palmer recommends that anyone interested in similar research opportunities makes sure that they’re comfortable with difficult and tedious field work. 

“You need to be comfortable waking up at five in the morning sometimes to be in the muck,” she said. “And sometimes you have to be really patient. A lot of people underestimate how hard that can be.” 

But even rather hard or gruesome moments — like tying a cow to a truck, taking it up a mountain, and feeding it to vultures — can be unexpectedly inspiring. Gomez-Palmer talked about that experience with a sort of awe. 

“They ripped open a hole in the cow and their long necks were going inside, eating the stomach and all the organs,” she said. “I wasn’t really that grossed out, I just thought it was incredible. It was such an honor to be able to see that kind of behavior.” 

Gomez-Palmer said she would love to return to the feeding sites to continue her research, and she’s already thinking ahead to doing her senior comps on Egyptian Vultures.  

“As I was analyzing the footage and running it through statistical software, there were some things that I showed to the ornithologist and the scientists there, and they were like, ‘we have never seen that before,’” she said. “It just felt so cool to be able to contribute to that.”