Two species comprise considerably more than half of (often more than 90% of) the Verreaux's eagle's diet: the Cape hyrax ("Procavia capensis") and the yellow-spotted rock hyrax ("Heterohyrax brucei"). Few other accipitrids are as singularly specialized to hunt a single prey family as Verreaux's eagles, perhaps excluding the snail kite ("Rostrhamus sociabilis") and the slender-billed kite ("Helicolestes hamatus") with their specialization on "Pomacea" snails. Not even accipitrids named after their staple food are known to be as specialized, i.e. the bat hawk ("Macheiramphus alcinus"), palm-nut vulture ("Gypohierax angolensis"), lizard buzzard ("Kaupifalco monogrammicus") and perhaps the rufous crab hawk ("Buteogallus aequinoctialis"). Certainly, the Verreaux's eagle has the most conservative diet of "Aquila" species, though the diet is more diverse in South Africa than in Zimbabwe.