Yurok Tribe seeks to restore the condor to Northwest skies

[depakid]

The tribes of the lower Klamath River, just south of Oregon's border with California, have since ancient times decorated themselves with condor feathers when they performed the dances designed to heal a world gone wrong.

Now the Yurok Tribe is using modern science in hopes of restoring condors themselves, which have not soared above the northern coast of California since 1914. If they establish that condors can survive there, it would be the first restoration of condors in the northern half of its historic range and a stepping stone to condors soaring over Oregon and Washington. Lewis and Clark collected some as they trekked down the Columbia River.

With a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the tribe is trapping turkey vultures to test for lead poisoning from eating the rotting remains of deer and elk contaminated by lead bullets, and cutting plugs of blubber from dead sea lions to measure the legacy of DDT pesticides. Thoses test will help determine potential toxic threats to condors.

Researchers from Oregon State University and the Oregon Zoo are computer mapping areas throughout the Northwest where condors can nest in big trees and rocky cliffs, and soar over steep hillsides with the kind of sustained winds that draw hang gliders. "He was like the boss of all the birds," said Richard Myers, a member of the Yurok Tribal Council. "At one point in time in our world we know where the beginning of the world was. We call it Kenick. The birds and animals would all speak the same language. He was the first one. He was also the first one to go extinct for whatever reasons."

The details of why condors went extinct in the Northwest are not clear. Tribal wildlife biologist Chris West figures that a big factor was commercial whaling and sealing, which deprived the birds of a major source of food washing up on the beach. Tests of feathers indicate marine sources comprised up to half the diet of some birds.

The Yurok need to establish how safe it will be for condors to feed on whales and sea lions, because their blubber is the repository of DDT pesticides and related chemicals dumped in the ocean decades ago. Like eagles, condors in the 1960s and 1970s became unable to hatch their eggs, because DDT made the shells too thin, West said.

When West found a beached sea lion recently, it was seething with maggots, too far gone for drawing samples of blood and blubber. The state of the carcass illustrates the role condors played in the ecology of California's North Coast, West said. They are the only scavengers strong enough to rip open such tough hide, allowing gulls and turkey vultures to join the feast.

In another attempt to measure lead levels, Tiana Williams sat hidden and quiet in the hills recently above Orick, Calif., watching the stinking remains of roadkilled deer and raccoons that would draw turkey vultures into a trap. After graduating from Harvard in biochemistry, she came home to work for her tribe. A bird struggled through a one-way wire entry into the trap, and Williams threw a flannel sheet over it and held it gently in her lap. Biologist West inserted a needle in a leg vein, drawing blood to test for lead.

Lead poisoning is the leading cause of death for condors in the wild, said Chris Parish, condor program director for the Peregrine Fund, which breeds birds in Boise, Idaho, and releases them at the Grand Canyon. To reduce the danger, the Peregrine Fund has worked with hunters to switch to non-lead bullets, and bring in the gut piles of animals they shoot so they won't be eaten by condors.

Aside from lead poisoning, there is little to stop condors from spreading clear up to British Columbia, Parish said. "The habitat is suitable for them, the carrion is suitable for them," he said. "It's a matter of where we can gain the assistance of the hunting community.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/tribe_seeks_to_restore_the_con.html

[XemaSab]

1. Very cool

There's a condor from the 1880s at Eureka High School.

[depakid]

2. Here's something I've always wondered

Turkey buzzards share the same habitat and presumably much the same diet. Yet those birds thrive. Why is that?

[izquierdista]

3. Probably more road kill

With a smaller beak, they have to eat smaller, less tough skinned carrion, like possums, coons, and armadillos. Well, armadillos have tougher skin, but after a hit by a semi, it gets tenderized. Eating lower down on the food chain means that there are less pollutants like DDT to accumulate in their bodies.

[pitohui]

4. turkey vultures are smaller, is one of the reasons

in the 1980s i attended a talk by noel snyder when the condor first went extinct in the wild, the wild birds were unable to raise young to successful adulthood, due to the fact that their wingspan was such that high numbers of young condors learning to fly would get electrocuted on power lines -- this is why snyder proposed putting the birds in the grand canyon instead of returning them to their california habitat -- they simply weren't going to be able to breed in the wild in that area of california w. that many power lines

turkey vultures (they are not buzzards) are of course susceptible to lead shot, lead poisoning, and the poisons left out for coyotes, but because they are smaller birds with larger populations, if some are killed, there are still many left

condors are truly LARGE, it's hard to understand just how large until you see them soaring with turkey vultures and ravens, as you can see today at the grand canyon

a small population that's already affected by lead and pesticide poisoning, with the added problem of the young, clumsy birds being frequently found electrocuted can't "overcome" -- a huge population of turkey vultures can tolerate the losses where the tiny population of condors can't

large animals as a general rule have smaller populations than smaller ones, there will never be as many condors as turkey vultures

i think there are around 200 condors now, most of the wild ones being in the grand canyon tho

[XemaSab]

5. I've wondered this myself

I've also wondered how there can possibly be enough dead animals around for all the TV's I see. :shrug:

[pitohui]

6. it's my understanding they make VERY efficient use of calories

it has been a long time since i looked into in any depth but it's my understanding that turkey (and black) vultures make extremely efficient use of the calories that they do consume

a human the size of a turkey vulture would need many more calories, they're just built to squeak out every bit of energy

i'll say one thing for TVs, they know how to do their thing and hardly ever flap, hell, hardly ever seem to move a muscle, they make good and efficient use of what they eat

TVs do not believe in the current fad of "exercise" and yet somehow they can be seen migrating for thousands of miles -- i have seen them migrate at least thru panama in large numbers and i don't know how much further they go, but they don't stop at panama -- all that and they barely flap a wing!

[XemaSab]

7. Just conceptually

it seems like soaring would take SOME energy. :shrug:

[pitohui]

8. they sure know how to keep it to a dull roar tho

even black vultures, who are known to flap, you can see like 3,000 of them on one dead donkey, you really have to wonder their secret for stretching the calories

(ok 3000 is an exaggeration!)

:-)