Tracking the Flight of the Condor

The largest birds in North America may once again fly the skies soon. Except this time they will have extra guidance through the help of GPS tracking.

Image courtesty of USFWS Pacific Southwest Region

Gaining Strength

The California condor, once the most mighty, prevalent bird on the continent, faced extinction in the last century due to disruptions in its environment. But much has been done to conserve the condor within the last few decades. The work of conservationists resulted in the release of the first captive condors in 1992. Now the Yurok Native American tribe and federal agencies are creating a plan to introduce several additional condors from captivity into their natural habitat within the next few years.

Preparing for Takeoff

The new program hopes to make the process of studying the birds easier. But before the birds take flight from their home, scientists want to add some guidance. The researchers need to know more about the endangered bird’s patterns: where it flies, rests, and makes its nest. Are all vital to understanding how the great bird adapts to the natural wild habitat. Employing tracking tactics similar to those used on other endangered species such as lions and tigers, the scientists have teamed up with technology partners to create a small GPS chip. The device, only a few square millimeters in size, can be inserted under the condor’s skin or attached to its feathers. The tracking unit is solar powered, so it can transmit data automatically without the need for a separate power source. The sun in the dry, hot areas of the condor’s habitat will power the device each day. The GPS will broadcast the condor’s location as it travels. This is important to know the pattern of the birds and their interaction with many possible dangers they may face.

Watching the Diet 

Decades ago, a main threat to condors was the insecticide DDT that poisoned many birds and destroyed their eggs.  Although DDT is now outlawed, other chemicals such as lead pose a serious problem to the condors.

Lead poisoning greatly concerns the scientists as it is the most common cause of death to the the endangered bird in the wild. It can enter their system and destroy it over time. Careless hunters shoot and kill animals without retrieving the bodies for disposal or processing. Thus, the bullets remain in the body. The condors, prodigious carnivores, then prey upon the dead animals and ingest the remains of the concentrated lead bullets. Over time the lead poisons the brain and other organs of the birds.

The new GPS attachments hope to diminish the threat of lead poisoning by continual transmission of the condor’s location in real time. If the signal slows or remains in the same position for a long time, researchers become concerned. The GPS will help them be able to find the bird and examine it for injury or poisoning. Over time, the scientists will examine all the condors and take samples of blood in order to detect general levels of lead poisoning.

Watching for Wires

Electrical wires also present a danger to the condor. The normal flight paths of the birds were interrupted in the past by cables and suspended wires. At times the birds could not avoid the wires and died in a collision with them. The GPS allows for monitoring of the approximate altitude and position in relation to electrical wires. Using this data, researchers can develop patterns of the condor’s flight and chart possible paths. They can then warn the owner of the electrical wires so that the company can reroute their technology.

Watching for Signs of Life

The nests of the endangered California condor have eluded researchers for years. But the GPS could help track the location of the nests. A new initiative finds the transmitted location and examines the eggs in the nest. If eggs are not viable, then the researchers switch them with viable eggs from captive condors. The researchers can return to the nest later to find the number of surviving young. The young birds could be examined and tracked for information about how the birds mature and grow into their natural environment.

Developing Ideas 

Future versions of the GPS band may include the ability to monitor and automatically send biometric data of the bird to the computer systems of the avian scientists. This data could show if a condor is healthy, sick, or pregnant. This information could be used to predict how a larger condor population would function normally.

Preserving the Future

The progress in preserving the condor has achieved much in the last two decades. The GPS trackers will provide more data for researchers to use in order to help more condors survive and fly free again.

Tracking the Flight of the Condor