A herd of condors skins a calf at 4,200 meters of altitude on a summit of Colombia. The dead animal was left there by peasants seeking to reconcile with their former enemy: the King of the Andes.
“It is a bird that when you see it fly, you feel so beautiful”Diana Bautista, a resident of the Almorzadero moor, in the Cerrito municipality (northeast), tells AFP.
But the condor was not always seen favorably in the region. A few years ago, residents used poisoned carrion and gunshots to get rid of an animal considered a threat to their sheep, goats and cattle.
Today farmers became aware of the importance of conserving one of the largest birds in the world, which is also in danger of extinction.
“Don’t believe bad things” that are told about the condor, Bautista claims, alluding to rumors about alleged attacks on livestock.
About twenty families found an alternative to the old conflict: they build sheepfolds to protect the fragile animals and platforms in the mountains where they feed the condors with cow fetuses, sick goats and other types of carrion.
The bird with a white collar and immense wings that reach three meters in wingspan hovers over the mountains and is the protagonist of the town’s murals.
legend in the wasteland
The paramo is a high mountain ecosystem in equatorial areas whose iconic plants, the frailejones, are capable of retaining water with their rigid leaves. He 70% of the water consumed by 50 million Colombians comes from the páramo.
Crosses formed with stones and a sign invite you to discover the condor reserve in El Almorzadero.
Its inhabitants say that the crosses are part of a legend: each visitor builds one to invoke the sun, which mitigates the cold of about 9°C and allows one to contemplate the condor.
The death of each specimen represents “a big loss” for the species because its reproduction is very slow, warns Carlos Grimaldos, an expert from the Jaime Duque foundation.
The condor reaches sexual maturity at 10 years old and only gives one offspring every two or three.
Protecting it is essential for the balance of the moors, since “It is the species that cleans.” soils by eating dead animals and prevents contamination of water sources, he adds. Binoculars in hand, Grimaldos teaches visitors how to distinguish the condor from other birds of prey.
Coexist
The vocation of the paramo is not to feed animals, but human activity decreased its wildlife and altered the habits of the condor.
The bird went from feeding on “small and medium-sized mammals” to consume cattle carrion and now removing the cows would pose a risk to their survival, explains Francisco Ciri, biologist and director of the Neotropical foundation.
To reconcile the King of the Andes with the ranchers, a group of 19 families from the páramo founded the Peasant Association Coexisting with the Cóndor (ACAMCO) in 2019.
A community initiative to “know and protect” the ecosystem with economic benefits, maintains Andrea Flórez, from ACAMCO.
Because the condor “attracts a lot of people”Add.
In parallel, the Jaime Duque foundation buys weak or sick animals from ranchers to donate them to the condor and thus study their eating habits with camera traps.
Images shared with AFP show how birds devour a bovine fetus.
Join forces
The Andean condor entered the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2020.
This “in an increasingly critical situation”said Guillermo Wiemeyer, researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina, present in Santander (northeast) during a meeting of the South American Condor Network.
The association of experts from Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela was created ten years ago to join conservation efforts and prevent the species from becoming extinct, as already happened in Venezuela.
There are 60 specimens left in Colombia, according to the only national census carried out by Neotropical in 2021. There are 6,700 in the entire region, according to the IUCN.
Given the “condors know no borders”it is urgent to coordinate a census in Latin America to understand the seriousness of their situation, according to the director of the Santander environmental authority, Alexcevith Acosta.
Two blocks from the main square of Cerrito, at the foot of the Almorzadero, a wall exhibits the majesty of the condor in the form of a colorful mosaic.
“It is a bird that not everyone has the opportunity to have in their countries (…) we have to love it, adore it,” says Diana Bautista.
Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
