Luis's Corner: Ospreys lend a helping hand to vultures

The V International Congress of the Andean Condor and I Symposium of Vultures of the Americas was held in the city of Sucre, Bolivia, from March 17 to 21. Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia, has a pleasant climate and a beautiful colonial urbanism and republican architecture that characterize it and give it the title of Cultural Heritage of Humanity, awarded in 1991 by UNESCO.

This edition of the congress was a meeting place for the main researchers of the Andean Condor at continental level, with representatives from all the countries where the Andean Condor is distributed: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. In addition, the first symposium of Vultures of the Americas was held, where other topics of the cousins of the Andean Condor such as the California Condor, Turkey Vulture, King Vulture, Black Vulture were discussed.

Specifically, Venezuela is the Andean country with the least information on the Condor. In this opportunity only Luis A. Saavedra was the only representative of the country, who thanks to the support of Virginia Osprey was able to attend and give two presentations. The first of these presentations described the daily movement patterns of the Black Vulture in the city of Merida, data obtained from a monitoring station of migratory raptors. The second presentation was related to the rescue of the biocultural knowledge of the migration of Turkey Vulture that every year pass through the Venezuelan Andes in their autumn migration and its cultural importance for the Venezuelan Andean people.

Other themes of the congress and symposium included applied biology, movement ecology, in situ conservation, ex situ conservation, conservation education, conservation medicine, human-vulture conflict and urban ecology.

In addition, the congress was also a meeting point where participants gathered to run several workshops related to vulture conservation at the continental level. Topics such as wind energy and developing a Multispecies Action Plan for Cathartids within a global vulture conservation framework, important for the conservation of vultures at the continental level, were covered and signed by all country representatives. 

This space was of great relevance and interest, it allowed to learn about the experiences and main research being conducted on the Andean Condor and Vultures at the continental level and brought together leading experts and researchers who are starting in this area. The most important thing was to share, build alliances and new collaborations that help protect and promote the conservation of this wonderful and important group of birds: the vultures.