Threats in the airspace for de Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus): The conflicts with current and future human infrastructure

NATALIA REBOLO IFRÁN; SERGIO LAMBERTUCCI

Puerto Iguazú

Congreso; Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

The increasing use of the airspace by humans is causing a growing conflict with the flying wildlife. For example, buildings, electric towers and wind turbines represent a constant challenge for birds due to the risk of collision and electrocution. Our aim is to analyze if the use of the airspace by the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) overlaps with current or projected aerial infrastructure. For this, we compared the condors flight patterns with the location and height of towers, electric lines and wind turbines in North WesternPatagonia. In this area the collision of condors with aerial infrastructure has been observed. We used the information of three-dimensional location (latitude, longitude and altitude) of 44 individuals marked with satellite transmitters. We overlapped condors data with a geographic information system including information on anthropic use of airspace. We found an overlap in the use of the land with the electrical infrastructures, as well as two wind farms that are being built inside condors home range. We also found that condors fly most of the time between 5 and 150 meters above ground level (magl), particularly up to 50 magl. These heights strongly overlap with those of the medium (15m) and high (55m) voltage transmission towers and wind turbines (160m). Thus, we show an integrated preliminary analysis of how some anthropic structures may represent a high potential risk of direct collision with flying fauna in an area that is still wild but with large potential for population growth and consequently increasing airspace disturbances.