The challenge of protecting dispersants of a species with large home ranges, the Andean Condor

GUIDO, JORGELINA M.; ALARCÓN, PABLO A. E.; LAMBERTUCCI, SERGIO A.

Congreso; I Ornithological Congress of the Americas; 2017

The establishment of protected areas (PA) are among the main strategies for the conservation of biodiversity. However, often these PA are inefficient for species with large home ranges (particularly for dispersing individuals), since they protect a small proportion of the area they use. To conserve a species, daily activities and key moments in their life history must be considered. Even for the same species, space use may differ depending on age. We studied immature Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) space use in general and then we distinguished between different behaviors (foraging, flying and resting), to analyze how they overlap with PA.We tagged 21 immature individuals with satellitetransmitters in the Argentine Patagonia. We analyzed the overlap of each behavior with the existing PA inside their home range. The 63.42% of the immature Andean condors? locations were in unprotected areas, 14.12% inside PA with effective protection (IUCN categories I-III), 8.44% in categories with lower protection (IV-VI) and 14.02% inside Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO). This pattern is consistent between behaviors. Although biosphere reserves improve the arid zones (ecotono and steppe) used by condors, that areas have a low representation of PA with adequate controls and management. The lack of protection could be a threat for the species and the environments they use since those unprotected areas are exposed to several threats, such as poisoning, or persecution. Our results highlight the importance of non-protected private lands for the conservation of the species, and the need to consider arid zones when designing PA.