Bogota – The Andean condor, the majestic soarer that is the biggest land-based flying bird in the world, can again be seen in Colombia in places other than on the nation’s coat of arms.
After approaching extinction locally in the late 20th century, “vultur gryphus” is again drifting on the high currents between this nation’s peaks thanks to an ambitious conservation program begun more than 15 years ago.
Colombia’s environment, housing and territorial development minister, Sandra Suarez, said that, according to a study by her office, “the total population of Andean condors in Colombia may reach 160 birds.”
Suarez said that, since 1989, authorities have been releasing in the wild condors born in captivity in zoos of the southwestern Colombian city of Cali and San Diego, California.
Environment Ministry officials said the gradual disappearance of the Andean condor in Colombia, as in the rest of South America, is attributable more to human pressure than natural phenomena.
The habitat for the Andean condor, which has a body length of about four feet and an 11-foot wingspan, was at one time the entire length of the Andes, from Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina and Chile to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range in northern Colombia.
In Colombia, the condor – which of all the world’s flying birds is the biggest after the albatross, a seabird – soared for centuries along the natural corridors between three parallel ranges of the Andes.
According to the officials, however, the condor’s distribution throughout this vast territory was “regrettably interrupted by the predatory activity of man.”
Mainly a scavenger, though it also occasionally kills some living prey, the Andean condor is the highest flying bird in the Andes region and the one with the largest wingspan. The bird, which has black plumage and a white neck ruff, is perched on top of a shield on Colombia’s coat of arms.
Condors live an average of 50 years and reach an adult weight of between 44-66 kilos (97-145 pounds).
Also joining Colombian’s efforts last week to bolster the condor’s population in the Andean range were experts from Venezuela, Chile and Argentina.
The National Program for the Conservation of the Andean Condor has among its objectives the development of strategies among different institutions for caring the bird.
It also includes plans to educate communities – and increase cooperation among them – in the management of natural populations, repopulation centers and birds in captivity to promote conservation of the species and its habitat.
Since the program began in 1989, experts have tracked condors in the wild to monitor their survival rates. They have also evaluated the status of wild condors in areas where they have multiplied after their release, despite the fact their rate of reproduction is very low.
According to the experts, the repopulation of the condor is a slow process due to the prolonged period of parental care for young birds and varying levels of food availability in the wild.
According to the specialists, an action plan slated to last through 2016 will allow the Andean condor to have a better chance at survival, but this will require the joint and coherent development of conservation strategies.
This in turn will require “a balance between institutional management and the participation of the communities,” the experts said.
