A five-person team of Pinnacles National Monument employees
leaves today for Argentina to create a partnership hoping to foster
condor recovery throughout the Americas.
A five-person team of Pinnacles National Monument employees leaves today for Argentina to create a partnership hoping to foster condor recovery throughout the Americas.
The project, dubbed the “Pan American Condor Reintroduction,” will examine two species of the bird – California condors and their Andean relatives – while creating “a partnership to understand and share how science and education are working to conserve declining condor populations on both continents,” said National Park Service Superintendent Eric Brunnemann, who’s on the team going to South America. The trip will also share conservation techniques the Argentinians use at zoos and national parks.
Brunnemann pointed out that the differences between the two species are hard to see. The American species has an eight-foot wingspan, while its Andean counterpart, for instance, has a 10-foot wingspan.
The two birds do share a similar topography, but the Andean condor’s range is much larger than the California condor’s. Brunnemann said that the Andean condor’s range goes from the southern end of the continent to near the top, while concentrated to the western side in mountainous terrain.
One of the main goals of the trip, sponsored primarily by the San Juan Bautista Rotary Club – the National Park Service isn’t involved with funding – is to craft an agreement between Argentina and the United States to further the research on both species of condors and ultimately get their populations boosted.
The Rotary is a major factor in this deal because its members are supplying the people to help make it possible. There are Rotary Club branches in nearly every Argentinian village, and the condor is so well revered there that such an agreement between Argentina and the U.S. is a natural fit, Brunnemann said.
According to a press release on the trip, those from Pinnacles scheduled to go include Brunnemann, Chief of Resources Denise Louie, supervisory wildlife biologist Jim Peterson, condor field biologist Scott Scherbinski and Washington, D.C.-based legislative specialist Kate Hammond.
Over the month-long trip, the team will make visits to a variety of places. Included are stops at the Buenos Aires Zoo, Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito, Parque Nacional Sierra de las Quijadas and a condor release site at Sierra Paileman. The team will work with park officials, condor conservationists and other experts in the field.
All but one of the team members is set to return home after the month-long trip, as Scherbinski will remain in Argentina to work with zoos and parks for an extra month, Brunnemann said.
Next year, an Argentinian biologist is scheduled to visit Pinnacles National Monument to study the California condor species. Teams from the two sides plan to trade off annual trips for the next five years.
Condor experts like Kelly Sorenson with Ventana Wildlife Society, which isn’t involved in the project, said the research should improve his own work on the species’ recovery.
