Pinnacles staff keep San Benito locals posted with blog
By Debora Rey
Associated Press Writer
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
– A team of U.S. and Argentine scientists are proposing to join
forces in a five-year project to bolster the number of condors
soaring above the high peaks of the Andes and California.
Pinnacles staff keep San Benito locals posted with blog
By Debora Rey
Associated Press Writer
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – A team of U.S. and Argentine scientists are proposing to join forces in a five-year project to bolster the number of condors soaring above the high peaks of the Andes and California.
Scientists from Pinnacles National Monument in central California visited Argentina this week to improve tracking and studying techniques of the birds, whose 9-foot wingspan has inspired reverence among indigenous people of the Americas for centuries.
The team is developing a five-year scientist exchange program with Argentina aimed at preserving the threatened scavenger, Pinnacles National Monument director Eric Brunnemann told a news conference Tuesday.
The number of California condors is estimated at around 300 – half of which are in captivity – and they are still in danger of extinction.
The Andean condor, a different species, has fared better: There are between 2,000 and 3,000 of the birds gliding over Argentina’s snowy crags.
Argentine and U.S. scientists have been working together since the early 1980s, when the California condor was on the brink of extinction. U.S. scientists applied successful efforts in Argentina to breed condors in captivity and then release them to salvage a waning California population.
“I want to thank Argentina because we were able to save our condors,” Brunnemann said.
Pinnacles biologist Denise Louie said condors still are in a precarious position. The two species face encroaching human development that threatens their mountain nests, hunting, and farmers who poison dead animals to prevent disease, which the carrion-eating condors then digest.
“The situation of the condors in both countries is grave,” she said.
Pinnacle staff have created a blog so that locals can track their time overseas. The blog, condoresargentinos.blogspot.com, has photos, video and descriptions of their activities. The last entry, dated September 14, described time spent hiking in Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas, an Argentine national park. Parts of the blog are in Spanish, but most of it is translated for American readers.
The travelers will be out of touch for a few days as they headed to Rio Negro to view the release of four condors on Sept. 18, but they will be back in touch with more posts soon.
City editor Melissa Flores contributed to this report.
