Cheered on by local community groups, three rehabilitated Andean condors have been released into the skies of the Patagonia National Park, Chile.
Their liberation is part of the Manku Project, a conservation effort led by the Rewilding Chile Foundation, which seeks to strengthen populations of this iconic Andean bird.
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Weighing in at up to 15kg with a wingspan of over 3m (about 10ft), the Andean condor is the world’s heaviest and biggest raptor.
The bald-headed, white-ruffed vulture is found in the Andes mountains and adjacent Pacific coasts of western South America, but it is under threat.
Habitat loss is a problem, but the biggest issue is ‘secondary poisoning’ which occurs when the scavengers eat carrion contaminated with poison used to control the predators of domestic livestock.
The species has been in steep decline in central Chile, but in the Patagonia National Park, things are taking off.
Carmen is a female condor born in captivity in 2023. Auquinco is a juvenile male rescued in Lago Ranco with a damaged wing, and Farellón is a male discovered in the mountains of Chile’s Metropolitan Region with a fractured foot.
Several months ago, the trio was transported from the Raptor Rehabilitation Center in Central Chile to pre-release pens in the Park, where they were quarantined and received health checks. When they took to the sky, they joined around two dozen other Andean condors, all released over the last decade as part of the Manku Project.
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The birds are all fitted with satellite and radio transmitters. “Since 2019, we have been using the satellite monitoring of flight patterns to understand the condors’ movements, their threats, and identify where the critical risks are concentrated,” says Francisca Cortés Solari, executive president of Philanthropy Cortés Solari. “This helps design policies, and measures of protection within territorial strategies to truly contribute to the effective conservation of this emblematic species for Chile and our region.”
The Andean condor is a national symbol of Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, where it plays an important role in folklore and mythology. It’s also a critical ecosystem engineer. “Condors play a key role in nature,” says Cristián Saucedo, wildlife director of Rewilding Chile. By scavenging carcasses, condors help to prevent the spread of disease and return nutrients to the soil. They are also as an indicator species. Their population status reflects the overall health of their ecosystem.
Top image: Condor release. Credit: Diego Márquez for Rewilding Chile
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