Berliner Boersenzeitung - Once the enemy, majestic condor wins hearts of Colombian farmers

EUR -
AED 4.100541
AFN 77.413379
ALL 99.399129
AMD 432.522876
ANG 2.01379
AOA 1036.582754
ARS 1074.840314
AUD 1.638402
AWG 2.009533
AZN 1.897724
BAM 1.956408
BBD 2.256061
BDT 133.531523
BGN 1.965931
BHD 0.42069
BIF 3238.849139
BMD 1.116407
BND 1.442823
BOB 7.721263
BRL 6.056951
BSD 1.117427
BTN 93.461652
BWP 14.702308
BYN 3.656772
BYR 21881.580359
BZD 2.25225
CAD 1.514613
CDF 3205.205045
CHF 0.946283
CLF 0.037662
CLP 1039.219035
CNY 7.873799
CNH 7.872619
COP 4650.114928
CRC 578.833333
CUC 1.116407
CUP 29.58479
CVE 110.296334
CZK 25.090913
DJF 198.97831
DKK 7.459754
DOP 67.075451
DZD 147.825397
EGP 54.173877
ERN 16.746107
ETB 128.596137
FJD 2.455869
FKP 0.85021
GBP 0.83926
GEL 3.047887
GGP 0.85021
GHS 17.599236
GIP 0.85021
GMD 76.474898
GNF 9654.915838
GTQ 8.637454
GYD 233.728494
HKD 8.699742
HNL 27.718371
HRK 7.590465
HTG 147.253152
HUF 394.292293
IDR 16913.28939
ILS 4.20618
IMP 0.85021
INR 93.316901
IQD 1463.742058
IRR 46992.371728
ISK 152.289464
JEP 0.85021
JMD 175.553018
JOD 0.791199
JPY 160.503655
KES 144.139301
KGS 94.085197
KHR 4535.288434
KMF 492.726608
KPW 1004.765812
KRW 1489.013615
KWD 0.340571
KYD 0.931181
KZT 535.171625
LAK 24673.45152
LBP 100061.122739
LKR 340.132722
LRD 223.475489
LSL 19.46858
LTL 3.29646
LVL 0.675304
LYD 5.32256
MAD 10.836176
MDL 19.498889
MGA 5034.475344
MKD 61.633614
MMK 3626.046911
MNT 3793.551484
MOP 8.970209
MRU 44.231754
MUR 51.22014
MVR 17.147489
MWK 1937.559121
MXN 21.703614
MYR 4.686123
MZN 71.282382
NAD 19.46858
NGN 1830.829635
NIO 41.122419
NOK 11.727561
NPR 149.530444
NZD 1.789646
OMR 0.429775
PAB 1.117427
PEN 4.194911
PGK 4.43634
PHP 62.087309
PKR 310.770571
PLN 4.277173
PYG 8722.55613
QAR 4.073657
RON 4.974597
RSD 117.085453
RUB 103.966336
RWF 1504.840991
SAR 4.189301
SBD 9.273924
SCR 15.205395
SDG 671.516557
SEK 11.363724
SGD 1.441756
SHP 0.85021
SLE 25.506892
SLL 23410.494226
SOS 638.592859
SRD 33.328128
STD 23107.374219
SVC 9.776953
SYP 2805.006413
SZL 19.453701
THB 36.873802
TJS 11.877787
TMT 3.907425
TND 3.384361
TOP 2.614734
TRY 38.083886
TTD 7.595294
TWD 35.710288
TZS 3046.342404
UAH 46.304169
UGX 4149.215921
USD 1.116407
UYU 45.903041
UZS 14235.29914
VEF 4044243.591204
VES 41.033447
VND 27452.452093
VUV 132.542101
WST 3.123107
XAF 656.149283
XAG 0.035721
XAU 0.000428
XCD 3.017146
XDR 0.828143
XOF 656.149283
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.464658
ZAR 19.611015
ZMK 10049.009427
ZMW 29.079391
ZWL 359.48265
  • RIO

    2.2700

    65.18

    +3.48%

  • CMSC

    0.0650

    25.12

    +0.26%

  • RBGPF

    60.5000

    60.5

    +100%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0200

    6.93

    -0.29%

  • RELX

    0.7600

    48.13

    +1.58%

  • NGG

    -1.2200

    68.83

    -1.77%

  • SCS

    -0.8000

    13.31

    -6.01%

  • BCC

    7.6300

    144.69

    +5.27%

  • VOD

    -0.1700

    10.06

    -1.69%

  • CMSD

    0.0300

    25.01

    +0.12%

  • BTI

    -0.3100

    37.57

    -0.83%

  • GSK

    -0.8100

    41.62

    -1.95%

  • JRI

    -0.0400

    13.4

    -0.3%

  • BCE

    -0.4200

    35.19

    -1.19%

  • AZN

    0.3200

    78.9

    +0.41%

  • BP

    0.3300

    32.76

    +1.01%

Once the enemy, majestic condor wins hearts of Colombian farmers
Once the enemy, majestic condor wins hearts of Colombian farmers / Photo: Handout - Fundacion Jaime Duque/AFP

Once the enemy, majestic condor wins hearts of Colombian farmers

A group of condors rip into the carcass of a calf at the top of a Colombian mountain which rises 4,200 metres above sea level.

Text size:

Their meal is a peace offering from local ranchers working to improve their relationship with the world's largest bird of prey, dubbed the King of the Andes.

"It's a bird that, when you see it flying, is so beautiful," said Diana Bautista, of the white-collared creature with a wingspan that can reach up to three metres, tipped by fingerlike feathers.

In the mountainous northeastern municipality of Cerrito where she lives, the condor has not always been looked upon fondly.

Up until a few years ago, villagers would leave out poisoned carrion or shoot at them to scare off the scavenger seen as a threat to their livestock.

A group of 19 families living high up in the moorlands of the Andes, a unique mountain ecosystem, in 2019 formed the ACAMCO association to protect and boost appreciation of the bird.

Now, residents have learned to build pens to protect their most vulnerable livestock, and platforms in the mountains where they leave carrion for the winged giants.

The community initiative is aimed at "protecting and learning about" the bird, which "attracts a lot of people" and could also have an economic benefit for the region, said Andrea Florez, from ACAMCO.

"We must not believe all the bad things that are said about the condor," said Bautista.

"Not everyone is lucky enough to have this bird in their country (...) we must love it."

- 'A great loss' -

Acamco is supported by the Jaime Duque Foundation, a Colombian non-profit organization, which buys weak or sick animals from breeders to give to the condor, in order to study its eating habits using camera traps.

Condors used to feed on small animals, but human activity has chased away their usual prey and they have become dependent on livestock, said Francisco Ciri, a biologist and director of the Neotropical conservation foundation.

The Andean Condor is considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists its population of mature individuals at just over 6,700 and decreasing.

There are only 60 left in Colombia, according to a 2021 national census by the Neotropical Foundation.

Their main threat is deliberate poisonings by humans, says the IUCN.

The death of a single condor is "a great loss" for the species because it reproduces so slowly, said Carlos Grimaldos, an expert with the Jaime Duque Foundation.

The condor reaches sexual maturity at the age of 10 and only gives birth to one chick every two or three years.

Protecting it is essential as the scavenger "cleans" the moorlands by eating dead animals and prevents contamination of water sources, said Grimaldos.

With binoculars in hand, Grimaldos teaches visitors at a reserve run by the foundation to distinguish the condor from other raptors.

The condor finds itself "in an increasingly critical situation" throughout the Andes, said Guillermo Wiemeyer, an Argentine researcher attending a meeting of the South American Condor Network in the province of Santander.

Experts from Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela created the network a decade ago to try and protect the condor, already considered extinct in Venezuela.

Alexcevith Acosta, director of Santander's environmental authority, said it is urgent to hold a census throughout Latin America as "condors know no borders."

(T.Burkhard--BBZ)