Daily Zoo Animal: #1, Andean Condor

[urbpan]

I decided I would continue to post every day, and that I would take a picture of a zoo animal each day that I work there. I can still do the 3:00 snapshots on days off. I don't know anything about this individual Andean condor. I photographed...her (I think the males have a comical head adornment)...because, honestly, she was the first animal on exhibit when I left my behind-the-scenes area, and I was eager to go home and see my wife and dogs. (Wife still isn't home, dogs are good.) I happen to like Andean condors a lot, and this one was perched close enough to the edge of the cage for me to get a picture without the cage mesh showing.

The Andean condor, Vultur gryphus, is the largest of the new world vultures, a group that includes the turkey vulture and is one of the largest flying birds. New world vultures are more closely related to herons and cormorants than they are to old world vultures. A diet of carcasses and convergent evolution have conspired to make both group of birds bald-headed, which avoids the mess of gore-sticky feathers. While turkey vultures live well off of the roadkill of American highways, condors (both Andean and Californian) are endangered, due to habitat loss and other human factors. Andean condors are part of American zoos' Species Survival Plan.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: I didn't have one! (I made up for it later.) I did post a nice series of pictures from Discovery Park in Seattle, however.

Comments

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the females have the red eyes. Tito is the male. I don't know this female. Lucy used to be there, but she died on one of those super-cold days a few years back. :(

One summer, the great hornbills were in that flight cage, back when there were ducks and flamingos and kooks and parrots in there, too. It was the coolest thing ever when they would fly overhead! :)

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

that is a gorgeous bird :)

hopefully it doesn't take after you like your prior vulture friend. nip nip nip nip NIP.

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[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

She's very pretty :3

I like condors and vultures; they're actually pretty when they're not neck-deep in gore or whatever.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

Yay carrion birds!

[lakme.livejournal.com]

They also take the cake for being the ugliest bird alive. But I love them anyways :)

I think the variety of efforts used to preserve the California condor are very interesting.

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

It looks like she's in an open-air enclosure; how do they keep her from flying away?

I don't know enough about condor physiology to tell from that picture whether her wings are clipped or not. :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's an illusion--it's a very big walk-through aviary (which I was outside of, taking a picture through the mesh). Also, flight for condors takes a lot of effort, not sure if she could just blast off if it was open air. I can't tell either, but her wings are probably not clipped.

Then there were the young mallard ducks whose wings I clipped, and yet the damn things could still fly...

[rumorofrain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most parrots can fly even with clipped wings, too. I guess if your survival as a prey animal depends largely on flight, your body is designed to fly no matter what shape your feathers are in.

How cool for them to have such a huge aviary! Are the people separated from the birds by mesh, or do you really walk through the enclosure itself? I've been in indoor tropical habitats at a couple of zoos where there was nothing but air between the people and the birds, but those were all smaller, non-predatory birds.

Hey, congrats on the new job! I'm excited about this new photo project!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I was looking at it again today, and there is mesh on the inside between the condor and the people--but the condor may also be separate from the other birds...I'll have to go in there tomorrow and check it out.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Looking at the picture again, her wings are definitely intact. I also just noticed that she's perched on a railing designed to keep humans from going (falling) into the water below, so I imagine she hopped or flew to get there.

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

She may not be "pretty", but she beautiful, and she looks bored.

[rosaleen.livejournal.com]

I like this idea and look forward to seeing your zoo photos :)

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Love Vultures, Condors and Maribou Storks!

Are Californian Condors still Extinct in the Wild, or is the Captive Breeding program working well enough to release a few yet?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The captive breeding and release program has been somewhat successful--there have are 6 chicks known to have been hatched in the wild since 1996 (it takes them the better part of a decade to reach sexual maturity).

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Keen. I hope they carry off a few cattle farmers in revenge *g*

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

There are about 120 wild California condors (pretty good, since we were down to 21 in the late 80's).

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Neat!

[candent.livejournal.com]

How was your first day?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Pretty good! I'm still really nervous :/

[ssejooz.livejournal.com]

The condors are GREAT! A lot of fun to work with. Is Ed still there?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Don't know! Haven't met him yet, at any rate--but I haven't met too many people.

[cyanocorax.livejournal.com]

Actually there's some new molecular evidence that new world vultures actually ARE related to old world vultures and not storks. But I'm not sure it has been published yet, or whether it will be convincing enough to get everybody to change all their signage again.