The story of Huasi and Yastay, the condors that will return to wildlife

Just over a year ago, two condors that grew up under human care in Cordoba and La Rioja arrived at the Temaikèn Foundation Rescue Center in Escobar, ready to complete their learning cycle and move towards their return to nature in Río Negro. This happens thanks to the Andean Condor Conservation Program (PCCA), of which Temaikèn is a part.

Yastay and Huasi are two condors that were born in Cordoba and La Rioja, respectively. Yastay was born on November 23, 2019 in Tatú Carreta, a Cordoba and Huasi reserve at the Yastay Preservation and Rescue Center in La Rioja, on October 27, 2019. Both arrived in Buenos Aires on February 12, 2021 as part of an articulated work between different organizations working on the conservation of this species.

“Both Huasi and Yastay are condors born under human care but by natural incubation, that is, they were born with their parents and stayed with them for as long as necessary. The fact that condors are with their parents in their first year of life is essential for behavioral issues such as feeding, chick care, grooming or dandling,” explained Juan Kabur, in charge of the caretaker team of the Temaikèn Species Recovery Center (CRET).

“After that period, work is being done to be able to combine them with the rest of the condors that can be reinserted with them,” added Kabur. And that stage is what Huasi and Yastay successfully passed, ready for their next stop: the Pailemán mountain range, located on the Rio Negrina coast.

Your arrival and stay in Escobar

When condors arrive at Fundación Temaikèn from rescues, they have to go through a series of veterinary checks and diagnostics necessary to determine their state of health, recovery and possible reintegration. This species is often the victim of hunters, injured by traps or are poisoned by ingestion of lead bullets that kill the animals they feed on. They can also collide with man-made structures, such as high-voltage cables or other alterations to their natural habitat.

Fortunately, it is not the way in which Huasi and Yastay arrived since, as they tell in Temaikèn, they were raised by their parents and “both arrived in perfect condition and with their corresponding veterinary discharges from their places of origin”.

During this time they spent in Escobar, in addition to monitoring their health, they underwent a behavioral check-up, where they evaluated how they live with their potential reintegration partners. Why are they studying their behavior?

“Condors, like other scavengers, are gregarious animals, which means they can move in groups of several individuals. At CRET, a flock of condors born under human care gathered in different institutions of the country. The compatibility of these animals was monitored and it was evaluated that they can express the natural behaviors that any condor would express in the wild. That is, for example, when feeding, they look like a condor would look like in the Andes or in the High Peaks of Cordoba when eating,” said Kabur.

The space prepared for condors in CRET is very particular since all the animals that spend time there do so under human isolation, which implies that those who deal with these animals every day do so in a hidden way. In the case of condors, the enclosures have mirrored windows to prevent them from positively associating humans with their diet. In this regard, Juan concluded that “at the end of their time at the Recovery Center, we can say that they are animals suitable both clinically and behaviorally to reintegrate into nature.”

Next step: final checks and wing band

A year and months later after his arrival at CRET, an interdisciplinary team of professions moved Huasi and Yastay to their Veterinary Hospital where they performed the final veterinary check-up where, together with the PCCA team, they also proceeded to place their wing bands. “The wing band is a marking that is placed, as its name implies, on one of its wings. This' label ', as of today, is like each one's DNI, and once they are seen flying around Patagonia, it will serve us to be able to observe them with binoculars or monoculars and thus know which one is,” Kabur explained and clarified that “the bands are not heavy, so they don't cause any pain or discomfort in animals”.

Huasi and Yastay are ready for the next stop on this long journey: Paileman, Rio Negro. There it will be their place of reintegration, but first they have to go through a stage of adaptation in a “presuelta” enclosure.

From Temaikèn they explain that “this site, managed by the PCCA, is located on a rock formation more than 400 meters above sea level. It is important that the animals reach this point a few months before their reintegration, as they must become accustomed to the environment and above all to the thermal currents and winds in the region.” The condors are expected to travel to that destination in the coming weeks to carry out the last stage of this reintegration process. There is still no set date, since first all the institutions that make up the program must evaluate the cases and possibilities as the area has a changing climate.

“In Pailemán there will be technicians from different organizations, headed by Ecoparque and Fundación Bioandina. They live at the base of the field located at the foot of the plateau and are responsible for continuing to monitor the condors in their natural habitat. They will continue with the observations in their new and final premises until it is time to reinsert them. There, thanks to the wing bands and satellite tracking and telemetry elements, they will be able to accompany them and monitor their performance, to continue feeding important information about this species and conservation”, concluded Kabur, who participated in the monitoring of condors in 2019, when the Foundation managed to reinsert a condor for the first time born in the Temaikèn Biopark.

Yastay and Huasi join the more than 100 condors that passed through the Andean Condor Rescue Center of the Temaikèn Foundation over 10 years. Coming from all over the country, 70% of these cases could be rehabilitated and released into their natural environment. Others, because of the seriousness of their injuries, although they cannot be returned to nature, become part of the reproduction, education and research programs of the Andean Condor Conservation Program in Argentina.

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