Posted on January, 01 2000

Caracas, Venezuela: The magnificent condor inhabits the inaccessible heights of the Andes mountains in South America. One of the largest birds that fly, it soars to 10,000 metres and allows itself to be carried along by the play of warm and cold currents. From the ground it is an awesome sight, with its three-metre wingspan and majestic aerial turns.

Condors are found throughout the Andean countries, from Tierra del Fuego through Argentina and Chile to the northern spur of the mountains in Colombia and Venezuela. Related to vultures, condors, too, are natural garbage collectors. They take off from their perches in small crevices or caves in the cliffs about 8AM � some rise a little earlier � and return when the sun is setting. During the day they feed on animal cadavers in the high Andean plateaux.

A sizeable portion of the Andes is considered a Global 200 site by the conservation organization WWF because it is one of the most important ecological regions in the world. Its protection is vital for the survival of thousands of plants and animals. The condor was selected as a target species within the ecoregional conservation programme, which involves WWF in Colombia and Peru with its Associates Fundacion Natura in Ecuador and FUDENA in Venezuela. The survival of the condor will depend on the extent to which this mountain ecosystem is conserved.

This species has suffered from increasing human pressure for several several decades. The inhabitants of the Andes cut firewood from the area's small forests, thus destroying the habitat of the condor's prey. In addition, many people fear the condor, telling superstitious tales of cattle and even children being carried away.

"Many condors have fallen to the rifles of rural inhabitants who wrongly think they can fly off with their livestock," says Diego Diaz Martin, coordinator of the Northern Andean Ecoregion of WWF. Nothing is further from the truth. The condor normally avoids human contact, except when its curiosity is aroused.

The healthiest condor populations of the region are found in Chile and Argentina, countries that still have pristine mountainous areas. In Peru and Bolivia the condors remain out of danger for the moment, but the same human factors are beginning to work against them. In Ecuador urgent action is needed because their population has fallen to a critical level.

In the extreme north the situation is worse, especially in Venezuela. According to Maria Rosa Cuesta, a biologist and head of the Condor Repopulation Programme in Venezuela, "the condor was extinct in the Venezuelan Andes by the 1980s, although eventually a few were seen flying through the area. In 1993 a repopulation programme was initiated with specimens from zoos in Los Angeles and San Diego in the United States." The project is directed by Fundacion Bioandiana, in collaboration with other organizations, with the aim of releasing three pairs annually over the next five years to monitor their behaviour and survival rate and to ensure the future of the species in the region.

This successful programme has enemies, however. The birds are set free on a spur of the Andean range protected by the national parks of Sierra Nevada and Sierra de la Culata in the state of Merida, Venezuela. This area is close to Mucuchies, where the mayor has shown a notable aversion to the condors, and has encouraged the local people to kill them.

"Another factor that acts against the survival of the condor is their low reproductivity," says Cuesta. "These birds reach sexual maturity at eight years old and a pair produces one egg a year which is incubated by both members for 56 days." To make things worse, young condors take more than a year to become independent.

But efforts to help this majestic bird are progressing and more and more local governments, organizations and individuals now recognize the importance of its survival. The number of Colombian condors has doubled in the last few years and those released in Venezuela have been successful, with some individuals even making excursions into neighbouring territories. Yet there is still a long way to go before we will see sustainable numbers of condors wheeling on the wind currents.

(755 words)

*Juan Ignacio Cortinas works with WWF Associate FUDENA in Caracas, Venezuela