In 1964,  I made my very first hike into the Andean mountain range of South America. The towering crags of the Paine Massif, in Patagonia, was an awesome place to start. That my "welcoming committee" happened to be a splendid entourage of eight full-grown condors was extraordinary. I do not flatter myself that they came soaring in to greet me with any sort of friendly "saludos." Being raptors, they were out cruising for carrion as usual, and spotted my body relaxing on a high ledge. For them it was the sign on a butcher shop: "FRESH MEAT TODAY!" Circling in to inspect the goods, they got a little too close; I jumped up, back to life, waving and shouting, and they gently floated off. In the ensuing years, I've had scores of sightings and encounters with condors, but never one quite so intimate.

 

 

Then, as now, Andean condors [Vultur gryphus] as a whole were numerous, although severely declining in some areas. During the 1960's the condor of North America [Gymnogyps californianus] or "Californian condor," was critically close to extinction. As human settlement had moved west over the continent, this condor was rudely and systematically eradicated from its widespread range. By accidental poisoning, being shot for sport —or just for the hell of it—they had all been killed, except for a handful of individuals holding out in the isolated mountains of the Coastal Range near Ventura, California. By the 1980's, only 22 birds were left.

 

Californian and Andean condors are different species, but they both fill the same   biological niche. Important lessons learned during the last 30 years in the United States have come to be critical to survival for condors throughout the Western Hemisphere--and for all endangered birds everywhere.

 

 

It was risky; condors mate for life, and when they do breed –once every two or three years--they drop only one egg. Their captive breeders soon learned, however, that if the one egg was removed the pair might lay a second egg or even a third. These kidnapped eggs were incubated by machine, and the chicks reared in laboratories. At first, the process was questionable and nearly disastrous as some of the first chicks died. Eventually, the plan succeeded.

 

It takes nearly two months for a condor's egg to hatch. Then, the chicks have to be fed by hand. To avoid any "imprinting," that is, growing up copying humans as their real parents [as happened in Konrad Lorenz"s classic experiment with geese,] the chicks are kept in a box out of sight of man. Puppets made of molded plastic to resemble the heads of the parents of the condor are worn on the hands of their caretakers who feed, preen, and caress the chicks. The young condors are slow to mature—it takes six months to fully develop all their feathers. For many more months they are kept under human care until mature enough to release into the wilds.

 

In the early stages, this breeding program was in serious doubt, but eventually a substantial pool of chicks and young adults was created. After being in captive care for more than a year, the young adult condors are released into the wild, and then they do not breed until they are 6 or 7 years old. Until it finally happened, the scientists were not even certain if lab-raised condors released to the wilds would mate, find nesting sites, hatch chicks and raise them on their own. The big unknown: could the new parents teach their chicks the essential survival lessons, such as how to find food?

 

Looking back, it is interesting to note the recent reversal in mankind's attitude toward condors, and other endangered creatures in nature, since the 1960's. After a couple of centuries of exploitive and wantonly destructive habits toward wildlife, public opinion in North America suddenly switched to protective attitudes of caring, nurturing and re-population of endangered species and wildlife. Why had we been so reckless about our condor? Maybe we were just ignorant of the need for scavengers to clean up the land, or thought we had other similar buzzards to do the job. The early settlers mistakenly saw the big birds as a threat to their livestock and perhaps their small children.

 

In any case, the birds were seen as "good for nothing" and easy to shoot. Extinction was not a worry back then as it was believed we had an endless supply. Who would have thought that the passenger pigeon, which at one time flocked in the billions, would be so easily and completely wiped out? It was not until recently that man has learned that every species plays an essential role in our natural biodiversity, which is essential to man's own well-being. At the very last minute, we have decided to save the condor.

 

Now, after more than twenty years, the captive breeding program in the United States has proven successful. As of January 2010, some 350 Californian condors are alive, having been fostered in various zoos around the U.S. More than 180 of these birds have been released to the wild, and most are surviving. Habitat sites have been established in five counties of California, one site in Baja California, and two in Arizona [one is easily viewed from a popular tourist spot on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon].

 

In South America, their condor has been in less danger, and generally more respected than the Californian condor. The Andean condor has been a symbol of freedom since the South American independence from Spain -- its the national bird of all Andean countries, seen on their national crests and currency. Even the continent’s favorite comic strip hero is called "Condorito."

 

With less density of population, and more accessible habitat, the danger of possible extinction of the South America condor has not been so dire as in the U.S, with an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 birds in Chile and Argentina. However, in recent years numbers along the northern Andes chain have severely declined, and in many local regions condors have been completely wiped out. By the 1980's, there were only about 100 individual birds in Colombia and Ecuador combined, the condor was seriously in decline in Peru and Bolivia, and in Venezuela the big bird has been officially declared extinct.

 

In the late 1980's, captive breeding programs, similar to those in California, were started for the Andean Condor. At first, eggs collected from nests in the Andes were sent to the U.S. where they were incubated in zoos. The chicks were raised to maturity, and sent back to their Andean homes. In 1991, the Buenos Aires Zoo began its own program of breeding, rearing and release.

 

 

 

 

The message is now clear: If, through our collective non-caring ways we can decimate a species of raptor down to the brink of extinction, and afterwards, somehow, have the good sense to realize our mistake and go on to develop the means, through extra care and modern technology, to bring them back, then there's hope for reversing the decline in numbers of endangered species around the world and mitigate the damage we have done to nature on the whole.

 

A good beginning has begun on both continents. But many problems still need to be worked out. It is sad, but true, that some of the released birds have died. Some were shot. Wherever there are guns, there will be fools who use them irresponsibly. This could be regulated by various means such as strict fines and punishment. In California, killing a condor is punishable by fines of up to $100,000 and a year in prison. The more useful and long-lasting solution may lie in education. Say Dr. Jacume: “Public education is the most effective way to protect the condors. It takes years and thousands of dollars to raise a bird, and only an instant to kill it…."