Anthropogenic threats to the Vulnerable Andean Condor in northern South America.

Autor: Restrepo-Cardona JS; Fundación Cóndor Andino Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador.; Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States of America., Parrado MA; Fundación Neotropical, Bogotá, Colombia.; The Peregrine Fund, Galápagos, Ecuador.; Escuela de Biología, Universidad industrial de Santander, Bucaramanga, Colombia., Vargas FH; Fundación Cóndor Andino Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador.; The Peregrine Fund, Galápagos, Ecuador., Kohn S; Fundación Cóndor Andino Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador., Sáenz-Jiménez F; Fundación Neotropical, Bogotá, Colombia., Potaufeu Y; Fundación Galo Plaza Lasso, Zuleta, Ecuador., Narváez F; Fundación Cóndor Andino Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2022 Dec 01; Vol. 17 (12), pp. e0278331. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 01 (Print Publication: 2022).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278331
Abstrakt: Vultures comprise one of the most threatened groups of birds worldwide. With a total population not exceeding 6700 mature individuals, and in rapid decline across its range, the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) is listed as a Vulnerable species in the IUCN red list. Local population extinctions and decline are of particular concern in northern South America, where no more than 340 condors may exist at present. Despite this, no quantitative assessments exist in Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela regarding the threats affecting Andean Condor populations. To address this, we compiled records of Andean Condors injured, or killed, between 1979 and 2021. We obtained data of 164 condors affected by different causes of injury, of which 83.5% were reported in Ecuador, 15.2% in Colombia, and 1.2% in Venezuela. Of the total number, 84.7% of the injured individuals died. Between 1979 and 2021, in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela, at least 103 Andean Condors were presumably poisoned, 22 were shot, and 39 individuals were affected by other causes. The total number of individuals affected by different causes represents between 48% and 72% of the total population estimated in northern South America. Of great concern is the fact that, between 2007 and 2021, poisoning and shooting together caused the loss of 19-31% of the estimated population of condors in Ecuador, and 7-21% of the estimated population in Colombia. Given the important mortality induced by humans, environmental education programs, socio-ecological research, application of environmental laws, and management strategies based on scientific evidence to prevent and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts are urgently required for effective Andean Condor conservation in northern South America.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2022 Restrepo-Cardona et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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