Meghan Sullivan

Sophomore College Final Paper

10/16/16 The Andean (Vultur gryphus) ​ ​

Introduction

A common theme throughout our readings in the Sophomore College was the negative impact of humans on . Indeed, many conservation problems arise because of human carelessness. This is true for the of Patagonia, which in the past has been hunted excessively by humans. Even though this problem has been addressed, the Andean Condor still faces population decline. In recent , the number of tourists visiting Torres del Paine

National Park has risen by 1400% between the years of 1986 and 2006. (Herrmann et al 2010: 6)

If humans do negatively impact , then now more than ever, measures should be put in place to mitigate the effect. This research paper explores the relationship of humans and Andean

Condors today. It will attempt to determine if human impact still negatively affects the Andean

Condor population.

Background

At a wingspan of up to 10 ft, a height of up to 4 ft, and a weight of around 30 lbs, the

Andean Condor is the largest flying in the world. It is known for it’s bald head, black body feathers, and white feather collar which is found only on the males. (National Geographic 2016)

Man compared to Andean Condor (National Geographic 2016)

Male Andean Condor (National Geographic 2016)

They can be found from the Patagonian region of all the way to .

However, the population is not evenly distributed throughout these areas. As the Andean Condor

Condor territory stretches more north, the population decreases. The Patagonian area has by far the most condors, with the IUCN listing the population there at around 300 compared to Ecuador’s 65.

Total, there are around 10,000 Andean condors in South America. (IUCN 2012) The condor resides in the coastal and mountainous areas of these regions, as pictured below. This is partly due to the condor’s role as a , seeing as a heavily forested area would prohibit them from easily viewing carcasses. It is also due to their unique flying patterns. Condors primarily coast on the breeze, only flapping their wings during take off. Due to their large body mass, condors often have difficulty taking off if they are not in an area with substantial breeze. They often fly up to

16,000 ft in the air, so wind needs to be consistent throughout different altitudes in that region.

Since coastal areas and mountainous regions often have windier environments, these locations are prime for condor habitats. (Herrmann et al 2010: 4)

Andean Condor in flight (taken on our expedition)

Condor habitats highlighted in yellow

Condors are part of the Cathartidae family, which means they are related to the condors. There are many similarities between the , but overall the Andean condor is bigger, flies higher, and deals with more extreme habitat conditions (such as colder climate and higher wind speed). However, one similarity remains between the two: their endangerment.

(National Geographic 2016)

In the 1970s, the Andean condor was put on the endangered species list. (IUCN 2012)

Since then, it has been moved to the near threatened category, which means that although it is no longer endangered, its population is still declining. When one takes into consideration the condor’s maturity rates and reproductive patterns, this is particularly alarming news. The condor has an extremely long lifespan - up to 70 years in some cases. They also have an interesting reproduction pattern: it takes them around 8 years to reach maturity, and once they reach that point they only breed every two years. During their breeding season, they have one mate and only lay one .

These factors create a very low reproduction rate. This means that when death rates are high, it is hard for their reproduction rates to exceed their mortality rate, and in result the population remains unstable.

Their endangerment may appear counterintuitive at first. The Andean Condor was revered in many South American indigenous cultures and legends. Currently, the Andean Condor is on the national seal for Ecuador, , , and . Clearly, there is great cultural significance to the bird. (Herrmann et al 2010: 6) However, their population decline stems from various factors.

Because condors are , they are affected by changes in the animals they feed on. Much like the California Condor, the Andean Condor fell prey to lead poisoning via lead bullets in dead animals. Along with that, local hunters often mistook the condor’s scavenging as hunting, and in result would kill the condors to prevent their livestock from being harmed. (Lambertucci et al

2009: 3)

Condors often feed on deceased , which has been mistaken in the past as the condor killing the sheep

A , one of the traditional animals that condors scavenge on

Since the condor was first recognized as endangered, there have been efforts to stabilize their population. Bans were imposed on the killing of condors, and campaigns were launched which highlighted how the scavengers were of no threat to livestock. However, the population has still not returned to normal. (IUCN 2012) This leads to many unanswered questions, as the perceived main sources of their deaths have been addressed. An interesting correlation appears that might explain the continual decline: the population of condors decreases in areas where human population increases. (National Geographic 2016) Could the condor’s decline be due to human interaction?

Hypotheses

Hypothesis #1: Human impact causes the condor breeding and roosting ​ ​ areas to decrease.

Hypothesis 1 explores the relationship between humans and condors when humans infringe on the condor’s roosting grounds. According to a 2010 study by Herrmann et al, condors are affected by humans from up to 200 meters away. The study, which examined the reactions of

Torres Del Paine condors in their nesting areas when humans entered a 200 meter radius, showed a variety of reactions from the condors. While most of the condors hesitated to land on the roost, around 30 of them stayed away from the roost and around 10 abandoned the roost altogether.

(Herrmann et al 2010: 7) No matter how one looks at the data, it shows that humans have a significant impact on condors. As shown above, only less than 5 condors had no reaction at all. Even more alarming was the fact that sound had an effect as well. As the study states, “Extremely loud noises, such as those made by helicopters provoked the greatest lack of attendance at roosts even when they came from a distance of more than 1.5 kilometers” (Herrmann et al. 2010: 3)

Although noise was not the main focus of Herrmann’s study, that small portion of the study did prove that human externalities can also affect condors. Compared to the more urban environments one would find in Ecuador, places such as Torres del Paine are relatively devoid of human externalities. However, roads still stretch through these remote locations. A study by

Speziale et al examined the effect of roads on the condor.

In the study, they placed 50-350 meters from a road in the Rio Negro province of

Northwest Patagonia, then placed the same type of carrion 500-6000 meters away from the road.

With a pool size of about 196 condors, they carefully measured the different reactions the condors had. The reactions of the condors were viewed over a period of about 66 days. As the graphs below show, more condors scavenged away from the road than near it. When they did scavenge on the road, they spent less time there, often leaving before they could eat. (Speziale et al 2008) This is significant for a couple reasons. One, it shows that condors are not only bothered by humans themselves, but are also bothered by other externalities that humans cause such as roads and noise.

Two, the study concluded that “a strip of up to 350 meters away from a road is a bad habitat

Andean Condors.”(Speziale et al 2008: 6) This means that not only will the condors avoid eating in areas near the road, but also avoid roosting near the road. As tourism increases, and more roads are eventually built, this could have a severe impact on roosting sites that are in the vicinity. Finally, it’s not only humans that drive condors away from their nests. Donazar et al examined a communal roost of around 30 mating pairs in Condorito National Park of .

They found that “situations where preferred roosting places are limited, competition among individuals is expected and adjustments in social structure should occur.”(Donazar et al 2002: 3)

Essentially, when humans are near roosting sites, condors start to compete with each other, driving the less dominant condors away from the roosting site. This poses a problem as the older and more dominant condors receive the safest roosting spots, while the younger condors are pushed into roosting areas with higher mortality rates. Because of this, condors who may only have a few years left to live are receiving the better benefits of the more ideal roosting sites, while young condors who are the hope for repopulation are being sent to their deaths. As Donazar noted, “Peripheral places, more prone to predation and hypothermia, were more commonly occupied by subordinate individuals” (Donazar et al 2002: 4) The two graphs below detail this, with the black bar indicating poor roosting grounds and the light bar indicating the preferred roosting grounds.

A = adult, M = male, J = juvenile, and F = male (Donazar et al 2002: 6) ​ In conclusion, hypothesis 1 was confirmed. Although the pool sizes of condors were often small, in each study, human impact caused clear negative reactions from the condors. Human impact includes anything from humans themselves as seen in the Herrmann study, or human externalities such as roads and noise. Perhaps the most surprising conclusion was that when condors feel that humans are encroaching on their territory, they turn aggressive towards each other as well. While in some cases, the condors merely left their nests for several hours, other cases observed the complete abandonment of the nests all together.

Hypothesis #2: Communal roosting and breeding grounds increase condor ​ ​ population.

After finding that humans do cause condors to leave communal roosting grounds, the next logical step is to examine the benefits that these roosting grounds have. My second hypothesis is the following: communal roosting and breeding grounds increase the condor population.

Communal roosting grounds are areas where several condor mating pairs nest and breed. This number could be anywhere from 10 to 50 bird pairs. For the Andean Condors, these communal roosting ground are usually on cliffs or mountain sides. Throughout the seasons, the use for these communal roosts change. During the pre breeding season, there are many , and the condors can be seen building nests and laying . During the chick rearing period there are a medium amount of birds, and as it moves into the fledgling period there are very few birds, as chicks can be left unattended. (Lambertucci et al 2007: 7-10)

Studies such as Donazar’s and Herrmann’s conclude that many communal roosts have better conditions, which make them more attractive to condors. “Better roosting conditions” are defined as roosts with more hours of sunlight, stronger slope and thermal winds, and located by areas with more carrion. (Donazar et al 2002: 5) The longer hours of sunlight are beneficial in order to increase hunting hours and decrease chances of hypothermia. The stronger thermal winds are essential for the condor’s takeoff. Closer access to food saves the condor time and energy and can be essential when training their chicks. (Donazar et al 2002: 6) Condors also “showed preference for ledges on rocks, difficult-to-access caves” that protected them from the elements.

(Herrmann et al 2010: 10)

Essentially, if condors did not communally roost, there would be more nests in unideal locations, and therefore premature condor deaths would be more likely. By communally roosting, more condors are able to reap the benefits of an ideally located roost, instead of only having one or two condors benefit from it.

The graph above shows an overwhelming amount of communal roosts were on the East side of a

cliff, which is attributed to the longer hours of sunlight received on the eastern side (Herrmann et

al 2010: 11)

In conclusion, hypothesis 2 was partially confirmed. The studies prove that communal roosting locations have better conditions. Communal roosting allows more condors to access these better conditions, instead of being left to bad roosting areas with dangerous conditions. However, there were no studies available that gave a concrete measurement of condor deaths related to solo roosting. More research is needed in this area, but for now it does appear as though there are benefits to communal roosting.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Overall, humans do have an impact on the Andean Condor. While the impact doesn’t directly lead to the condors death as it once did in the past (i.e. humans aren’t physically hunting them anymore), human presence is indirectly leading to population instability. When human presence is near, condor's abandon their nests or relocate to nests in worse conditions. This causes the reproduction rate to sink even lower, and in turn makes the population hard to stabilize. It is important for national parks to survey the land and make note of where condors roost. Once this information is obtained, buffer zones can be put in place around the roosts. The buffer areas would keep out humans, therefore minimizing human impact on condors.

Education is also important when dealing with condor population decline. If tourists were better educated on what a roost looks like and knew the importance of staying away from them, then maybe tourists would be less inclined to bother condors. As more studies are conducted and the general public learns more about the importance of conservation, the condor population could begin to stabilize.

The decline of the Andean Condor is not a lost cause. After all, during our expedition in

Patagonia, we were able to see around 5 Andean Condors soaring in the distance. Much of the literature on Andean Condors suggested that this would be a somewhat unusual sight to see. After researching the Andean Condor, nothing compared to seeing them magnificently soaring in reality.

If experiences like that could be conveyed to the general public who have not witnessed such a sight, then maybe there could be hope for the conservation of the Andean Condor.

One of our stops on the road where a Andean Condor was reportedly spotted

A group of Andean Condors in the distance

Bibliography

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Speziale, K., Lambertucci, S., & Olsson, O. (2008). Disturbance from roads negatively affects Andean condor habitat use. Biological Conservation, 141(7), 1765-1772.

Lambertucci, S. A., Jacome N. L., & Trejo A. (2008). Use Of Communal Roosts By

Andean Condors In Northwest Patagonia, Argentina. Journal Of Field Ornithology

Gailey, J., & Bolwig, N. (1973). Observations on the Behavior of the Andean Condor

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Behavior of Andean Condors In Chile. American Geographical Society

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