Condors are native to California, and their numbers there are dropping, but San Diego Zoo is sponsoring a condor reintroduction programme based in Colombia. Seventy birds have been released in the Colombian highlands in the past two decades, most of them from San Diego’s breeding project, although twenty zoos in the US have been involved in the scheme.

The reintroduction programme has doubled the condor population in the Colombian Andes, although at one point before the project began, it looked as if extinction was certain, with less than twenty birds living in the area and most of them failing to rear young.

Reintroduction requires re-education

One reason for the death rate was that local people often killed the birds, either because they thought condors were prey seekers who killed livestock or to take feathers and bones for folk medicine. Another reason was that young birds, which like all condors, survive on carrion, found it more difficult to locate dead animals once they left the nest and didn’t have an adult to guide them to food sources. Finally, because condors mate for life, when one bird dies, the other doesn’t often find a new partner once the population starts to decline.

However, the new programme focuses on education as much as reintroduction. Local villagers are appointed as ‘condor keepers’ and given uniforms and receivers that pick up signals from the radio transmitters that the released birds carry. This helps them to track the birds, as well as allowing them to act as ambassadors to the local community, pointing out that the birds bring tourist money, as well as serving as environmental rubbish clearers by consuming carcases that could spread disease to livestock. The condor keepers also teach young people about the cultural and folk significance of the condor which appears on the Colombian flag. Although one released bird has been killed by a hunter, another was found near a town, disoriented and hungry, and the locals knew who to call to get the bird taken back to its territory where food can be provided if necessary.

Big birds make big dollars arrive

Captive breeding, raising, transporting and outfitting a condor with the radio costs thousands of dollars. But the local economy recoups a lot of this cost because the park in which many of the released birds live now receives around a hundred tourists a month: all of them looking for condors. San Diego Zoo says  ‘… we do it because we can, as stewards of the planet, and … to take care of the ecosystem and the wildlife within it.’

While the Zoo may focus on ecosystems, the rural Colombian communities which co-exist with the birds see something very different – the interrelationship between large mammals and developed nations which has become an increasing driver of tourism – simply put, when most people in the developed world can’t see large mammals in their towns, they include animal watching in their holidays, and that takes them to remote, often underdeveloped regions, where those creatures still exist. Infrastructure arrives swiftly: better roads, radio masts and refrigeration, to support the tourists. It’s still an open question as to whether tourist development proves sustainable, but as far as many in the Andes are concerned, the condors, and the money they bring, are here to stay.

Condor courtesy of Benedict Adam at Flickr under a creative commons license

Trouble in various kinds of paradise is the theme of this week’s environmental protest round up. Often, this kind of protest seems to happen in areas where low rates of employment and lack of other natural resources means that local residents are ‘forced’ to accept environmental projects that might be unacceptable in richer regions. But this week there is evidence that even Edens have their devils.

Thermal Power a non-goer in Goa?

A procession of thousands, including fishermen, political activists and local residents marched through local villages to complain about the proposed establishment of a thermal power project in the village of Hankon, Goa. Local fishermen object to the plan as it will be built on a riverbank known for its abundant marine life, and that the plant could damage the ecosystem in Goa Wildlife Sanctuary which was only 5 kilometres away.  Also the nearby Anashi National Park could be affected and the Indian Forest Conservation Act forbids the establishment of this kind of project so close to ecologically sensitive areas. People also fear that eco-tourism in Goa could be affected.

In addition, the Hankon Panchayat (village council) hasn’t given permission for construction activities and has launched an action against the company planning to build the plant. Local activists said that if the illegal construction wasn’t stopped in a fortnight, the action of the protestors would be ‘intensified’

Hippos, drugs and the protection of large estates

Pablo Escobar was one of Colombia’s biggest drug dealers. It’s claimed he was the originator of half the cocaine smuggled to the USA and when he died in a gun battle in 1993 he left behind a huge estate – literally. His Hacienda Napoles sits between Bogota and Medellin and is stocked with a bizarre range of creatures including elephants, zebra, giraffe and ostrich – and some hippopotami. Escobar apparently used them as giant bodyguards, confident that people would not break into the estate while he had such huge and aggressive wildlife roaming free. There were four hippos originally, but conditions suited them and they bred, so that now there are at least twenty, maybe nearly thirty: it’s hard to tell because the state, which seized the Hacienda Napoles as part of the proceeds of the drug trade, has let the place fall into disrepair after relocating many animals to zoos around the world.

Not the hippos though. Two of them broke out in 2006 and have been rampaging around the Bogota region ever since. But last week one was shot by professional hunters operating under a licence from the Environment Department.

Protestors, led by animal rights activists, mounted a demonstration outside the Environment Ministry, saying that it was unacceptable that Colombia, which allows bullfighting and cockfighting, could also allow hippopotami to be killed at will. The remaining escapee has had a calf since she got out of the estate and now a brewing company has said it will hire wildlife experts to capture them both and return them to the estate.  The Environment Ministry in Bogota was unrepentant although it agreed to work with the experts, claiming the animals were dangerous (they have killed calves) and could be harbouring diseases that threatened the Colombian eco-system. They appear to have no plans to use the estate either as a tourist resource or a wildlife reserve, instead they are happy for it to become a ruin, including the full size airship that sits on a purpose-built plantform outside the hacienda itself.

Hippo courtesy of wwarby at Flickr under a creative commons licence

Scientists from Conservation International and the Ecotropia Foundation have discovered ten new amphibian species.

Their discoveries took place in a mountainous area near Panama called Tacarcuna. The newly identified species include three transparent, or ‘glass’ frogs, three poison dart frogs, and one frog with spiky skin and orange legs. Glass frogs have a partly transparent skin which makes some of their internal organs visible. Frogs with this type of smooth, absorbent skin are seen by some as indicators of ecological health because they are very sensitive to toxins. They live mainly in forests, except during the breeding season.

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LIMA (EcoWorldly) -  After having successfully negotiated a free trade agreement with the United States, Peru is now strategically positioned to become one of the U.S.’s key allies and trade partners in Latin America. Given the American media’s substantial touting of international interest in the U.S. presidential election, I decided to go out the morning after Obama won and see what I could find out about the reactions among Peru’s newspapers and citizens.

What I found out surprised me. While newspapers wrote articles that I would have expected, the reaction I got from people was different.

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Will this mean more habitat destruction as farmers rush to clear land to help meet the demands of coffee drinkers?

Colombia is the world’s third largest producer of coffee and according to Bloomberg News, a growers group in the country now says that there will be less coffee produced than is desired next year. Oddly, while there will be a probable international surplus of 6-7 million bags this year, the extra supply will soon be made irrelevant by a 10 million bag deficit next year. We aren’t talking about the bags of coffee you buy in stores: we are talking about 132 lb. bags.

If you drink coffee, then you soon might be drinking less than usual.

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Several days ago, I read a story about how Peru’s butterfly exports had increased 43% from January-April of this year. These are the butterflies that are pinned into glass frames for sale as gifts and souvenirs. I wondered if all of these butterflies included those that are exported illegally and those that are endangered. Questions of this kind were on my mind as just several days earlier my family had passed by a street vendor who sold animals illegally.

One of the animals was a baby monkey, caged and frightened. We live in the highlands region of Peru, so the monkey was far from its former home in the rainforest. My wife, who in the past worked as a biologist throughout Peru, told me that she thought this was an endangered monkey. As we walked home, I wished I had brought my camera. This I thought, is a story that needs to be pursued.

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Photo courtesy of the Conservation Leadership Programme.