Andean condor

Taxonomy and systematics

The Andean condor was described by Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and retains its original binomial name of Vultur gryphus.

Etymology

The Andean condor is sometimes called the Argentinean condor, Bolivian condor, Chilean condor, Colombian condor, Ecuadorian condor, or Peruvian condor after one of the nations to which it is native. The generic term Vultur is directly taken from the Latin vultur or voltur, which means "vulture". Its specific epithet is derived from a variant of the Greek word γρυπός (grupós, "hook-nosed"). The word condor itself is derived from the Quechua kuntur.

Phylogeny

The exact taxonomic placement of the Andean condor and the remaining six species of New World vultures remains unclear. Although New World and Old World vultures are similar in appearance and have similar ecological roles, they are not closely related, having evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world. The difference between the two is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more closely related to storks. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Accipitriformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes. The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead described them as incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.

Fossil record

The Andean condor is the only accepted living species of its genus, Vultur.{{cite web | access-date = 2008-01-13 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081209091152/http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=175279 | archive-date = 2008-12-09

Distribution and habitat

The Andean condor is found in South America in the Andes and the Santa Marta Mountains. In the north, its present range begins in Venezuela and Colombia, where it is extremely rare, then continues south along the Andes in Ecuador, Peru, and Chile, through Bolivia and western Argentina to the Tierra del Fuego. However, its historic range was greater; in the early 19th century, the Andean condor bred from western Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego, along the entire chain of the Andes. Its range was significantly reduced due to human activity.

File:Condor des Andes mâle adulte.jpg|At Torres del Paine National Park, Chile File:Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) male in flight Farellones.jpg|Male, Farellones, Chile File:Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) at Colca Canyon.jpg|At Colca Canyon, Peru |access-date=2007-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061220141630/http://www.clemetzoo.com/rttw/condor/habitat.htm |archive-date=20 December 2006

Description

The overall length of the Andean condor can range from 100 –. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 75.7 –, the tail is 33 – and the tarsus is 11.5 -. Measurements are usually taken from specimens reared in captivity.{{cite book |access-date=2007-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061219194934/http://www.clemetzoo.com/rttw/condor/behavior.htm |archive-date=19 December 2006 | url-access = registration

The middle toe is greatly elongated, and the hind one is only slightly developed, while the talons of all the toes are comparatively straight and blunt. The feet are thus more adapted to walking, and are of little use as weapons or organs of prehension as in birds of prey and Old World vultures. The beak is hooked, and adapted to tear rotting meat. The irises of the male are brown, while those of the female are deep red. They have no eyelashes. Unlike the case with most other birds of prey,{{cite book |access-date = 19 July 2010 |access-date = 19 July 2010

Observation of wing color patterns, and the size and shape of the male's crest, are the best ways of identifying individual Andean condors. Sighting-resighting methods assess the size and structure of populations.

Ecology and behavior

The condor soars with its wings held horizontally and its primary feathers bent upwards at the tips. The lack of a large sternum to anchor its correspondingly large flight muscles physiologically identifies it as primarily being a soarer. It flaps its wings on rising from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation it flaps its wings very rarely, relying on thermals to stay aloft. In The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin mentioned watching condors for half an hour without once observing a flap of their wings.{{cite book |url-access=registration | isbn = 978-1-74059-749-4}} Flight recorders have shown that "75% of the birds' flapping was associated with take-off", and that it "flaps its wings just 1% of the time during flight".{{cite news |access-date=14 July 2020

Like other New World vultures, the Andean condor has the unusual habit of urohidrosis: it often empties its cloaca onto its legs and feet. A cooling effect through evaporation has been proposed as a reason for this behavior, but it does not make any sense in the cold Andean habitat of the bird.{{cite book

There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a 'pecking order' by body language, competitive play behavior, and vocalizations.{{cite journal | access-date = 2008-01-10 | hdl-access = free | archive-date = 2012-09-04 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120904025221/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14022914

Breeding

Sexual maturity and breeding behavior do not appear in the Andean condor until the bird is five or six years of age.{{cite web |access-date=2007-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205055624/http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/vultures/andcondr.html |archive-date=5 February 2007 | access-date = 2007-01-10 | access-date = 2007-01-10

The Andean condor prefers to roost and breed at elevations of 3000 to.{{cite book |access-date=2008-01-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009075845/http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Birds/Facts/FactSheets/fact-andeancondor.cfm |archive-date=2007-10-09

Feeding

The Andean condor is a scavenger, feeding mainly on carrion.{{cite book | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070612145057/http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/andean-condor.html | archive-date = June 12, 2007 | access-date = 2007-01-10}} Andean condors have been observed to do some hunting of small, live animals, such as rodents, birds and rabbits, which (given their lack of powerful, grasping feet or developed hunting technique) they usually kill by jabbing repeatedly with their bill.

Coastal areas provide a constant food supply, and in particularly plentiful areas, some Andean condors limit their foraging area to several kilometers of beach-front land.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071204213025/http://www.ecology.info/condors.htm |archive-date = 4 December 2007 |access-date = March 30, 2009 |url-access=registration | isbn = 0-7603-2582-0}} It may follow New World vultures of the genus Cathartes—the turkey vulture (C. aura), the lesser yellow-headed vulture (C. burrovianus), and the greater yellow-headed vulture (C. melambrotus)—to carcasses. The Cathartes vultures forage by smell, detecting the scent of ethyl mercaptan, a gas produced by the beginnings of decay in dead animals. These smaller vultures cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor, and their interactions are often an example of mutual dependence between species.{{cite book |access-date=2008-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080129233040/http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=ENV&recid=3646491&q=Cathartes+melambrotus&uid=791396595&setcookie=yes |archive-date=29 January 2008 |url-access=subscription

Andean condors can efficiently absorb a wide variety of carotenoid pigments from the vegetal matter within the viscera that they consume from carcasses. These include carotenoids such as β-carotene and echineone. The pigments result in the yellow skin colouration of adult males and their ability to flush their skin a brilliant yellow during contests for dominance, as well as the colour of the iris and bright orange tongues of both sexes. Captive Andean condors have a lower concentration of carotenoid pigments in their bodies than wild condors, likely because the diet of captive condors is usually restricted to just flesh. An analysis of the droppings of wild condors found that 90% contained vegetal remains, and of those that contained vegetal remains, 35% of them were composed of primarily vegetal matter (around 80% by volume). The potential sources for the vegetal matter is posited to include the viscera of herbivore carcasses as well as fresh vegetation.

Longevity

Being a slowly-maturing bird with no known natural predators in adulthood, an Andean condor is a long-lived bird. Longevity and mortality rates are not known to have been extensively studied in the wild. Some estimations of lifespans of wild birds has exceeded 50 years. In 1983, the Guinness Book of World Records considered the longest-lived bird of any species with a confirmed lifespan was a male Andean condor named Kuzya that died after living 72 years in captivity, having been captured from the wild as a juvenile of undetermined age. Several species of parrot have been reported to live for perhaps over 100 years in captivity, but these (at least in 1983) were not considered authenticated. Another early captive-held specimen of condor reportedly lived for 71 years. However, these lifespans have been exceeded by a male, nicknamed "Thaao", who was kept at Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut. Thaao was born in captivity in 1930 and died on January 26, 2010, at the age of 79. This is the greatest verified age ever known for a bird.

Relationship with humans

Conservation status

The Andean condor is considered vulnerable by the IUCN and the Peruvian Conservation Organization. As a result of research on its plight, its status was changed to Vulnerable from Near Threatened in 2020, and only about 10,000 individuals remain. It was first placed on the United States Endangered Species list in 1970, a status which is assigned to an animal that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.{{cite web |access-date=2007-10-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070921072436/http://www.fws.gov/Endangered/wildlife.html |archive-date=2007-09-21 |url-status=live | url-access =registration | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040726192641/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_andeancondor.html | archive-date = July 26, 2004 | access-date = 2007-01-10}} have been introduced in Argentina, Venezuela, and Colombia. The first captive-bred Andean condors were released into the wild in 1989.{{cite web |access-date=2007-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010112901/http://cres.sandiegozoo.org/projects/rb_condor_andean.html |archive-date=2006-10-10

In response to the capture of all the wild individuals of the California condor, in 1988 the US Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive Andean condors into the wild in California. Only females were released to prevent it becoming an invasive species. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean condors were recaptured and re-released in South America before the reintroduction of the California condors took place.

Role in culture

The Andean condor is a national symbol of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuelan Andes states. It is the national bird of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.{{cite web | access-date = 2007-10-06 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071006063912/http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/CountryIndex.htm#A| archive-date= 6 October 2007 | url-status= live}} It plays an important role in the folklore and mythology of the South American Andean regions, and has been represented in Andean art from onward,{{cite book | access-date = 2007-01-10}}{{cite web |access-date=2007-01-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061219195345/http://www.clemetzoo.com/rttw/condor/history.htm |archive-date=19 December 2006

The Andean condor is a popular figure on stamps in many countries, appearing on one for Ecuador in 1958, Argentina in 1960, Peru in 1973, Bolivia in 1985, Colombia in 1992, Chile in 1935 and 2001, and Venezuela in 2004. It has also appeared on the coins and banknotes of Colombia and Chile.

|File:Escudo de Bolivia.svg|Coat of arms of Bolivia. |File:Coat of arms of Chile (c).svg|Coat of arms of Chile. |File:Coat of arms of Colombia.svg|Coat of arms of Colombia. |File:Coat of arms of Ecuador.svg|Coat of arms of Ecuador. |File:Coat of arms of Peru (1821-1825).svg|First Coat of arms of Peru. |File:Coat of arms of Venezuela (1812).svg|Former coat of arms of Venezuela. ||Coat of arms of Pichincha Province, Ecuador. ||Coat of arms of Chimborazo Province, Ecuador. |File:Coat of arms of Mérida State.svg|Coat of arms of State of Mérida, Venezuela. |File:Imperial standard of the ethnocacerist movement.jpg|Imperial standard of the Ethnocacerist Movement, Peru. |File:Escudo-UNAM-escalable.svg|National Autonomous University of Mexico, depicting a condor and golden eagle. ||National University of Cuyo, Argentina. |File:Vultur gryphus Chili XIX.jpg|Hunting for condor. Chile, 1854.{{Cite web|title=Image 61 of Atlas of the Physical and Political History of Chile [Plates, Volume 1].|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_03979/?sp=61&r=0.004,-0.763,1,1.526,0|access-date=2023-02-11|website=Library of Congress |File:CondorLassoLyd.jpg|Argentine gauchos lassoing a condor, 1895. |File:60 cent Chile Condor.jpg|Chilean 60-centavo stamp, 1935. ||Aero Cóndor, an airline that flies over the Nazca lines in Peru. |File:Condorito.jpg|Condorito, a Chilean comic book character.|mode=packed}}

References

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