Photographer Page

Sofia Lopez Mañan

By tracking the birds with GPS telemetry, scientists have learned that condors’ ranges often span hundreds of miles from where they were released, encompassing the dry, rocky slopes of the Andes, verdant seaside coasts, and everything in between. As more condors are raised, rescued and released, that range will continue to expand, and the team will know which areas are most important to protect.

Santos Pastrana is chief of the Diaguita community in Tafí del Valle, a city in northwestern Argentina. Here, he stands at an Apacheta, a sacred stone construction built to make offerings to Pachamama, the mother-like deity revered many in the Andes. Spiritual leaders of the Indigenous communities throughout Argentina are not only involved only in the ceremonial condor releases, but are also critical team members for condor rescue, rehabilitation, and education.

Once chicks at the rearing facility are old enough, they are transferred to a large cage in the rocky hillsides of the Sierra Pailemán at the northern tip of the Patagonia coast. For two months prior to their release, they live here, adapting to chilly temperatures and sometimes buffeting winds—their natural habitat. On release day, the door is opened and the flock stretches their wings for the first time, flying out into their long-abandoned Atlantic habitat.

Huarpe people participate in a silent ceremony in Mendoza to mark the release of condor Tupun Catu earlier this year. Before the cage is opened, the assembled guests are each cleansed with smoldering, fragrant herbs and a condor feather. Then, all step back and the door is lifted; the condor may walk around for a while or immediately spread its wings and take flight. At that—a joyful shout goes up—jallalla! “Every time you have the experience to see condors fly over your head, it is incredible,” says Jácome.

The Arita Cone, a cinder cone volcano, juts above the Arizaro Salt Flat high in the Andes, straddling the border of Argentina and Chile. In local Indigenous languages, Arizaro means “roost of the condor;” the birds were once prevalent here, feeding on carcasses of animals attempting to cross the desolate salt flats, according to local histories.

At two months old and 15 inches tall, Karut stands in a incubator at the ACCP’s hatching facility just after mealtime. Karut hatched after spending 57 days in an incubator and is one of 80 condor chicks to be reared here. To date, almost every condor released from the hatching program has survived, although some have succumbed to the same threats that face all condors—poison bait and lead bullets.

All the chicks at the PCCA’s hatching facility, located at the Buenos Aires Eco-park, are raised in isolation from humans to preserve their wild instincts. Here, PCCA executive director Vanesa Astore demonstrates how biologists use condor puppets, mimicking parents in the wild, to feed chicks inside a nursery to give them the best chances at survival once they are released.

Huasi, a male Andean condor, receives a veterinary check-up at the ACCP’s Species Recovery Center in Temaikén Bioparque in Buenos Aires. During these check-ups, veterinarians also attach a wing band with a number for identification. A day before their release, condors are outfitted with GPS telemetry equipment to track their flight paths. Huasi will be released in Sierra Pailemán, at the northern tip of Patagonia, in October.

Marcos Pastrana is a leader in the Indigenous Diaguita community in Tafí del Valle, Argentina. As an anti-mining activist and geologist, he has seen the havoc human activity wreaks on the environment and wildlife, including condors. “Man in his pride believes he is the subject of rights, of intellect, of spirituality, the subject of everything. We talk about human rights to water, but… do other species, other forms of life, have no space?”

The Valle Encantado (“enchanted valley”) in Los Cardones National Park is a good place to search the skies for Andean condors, which in Argentina tend to favor lower-lying valleys rather than high mountain peaks. The ACCP rescues and releases condors here, but some residents of nearby pastoral towns are skeptical of the release of condors because they fear the birds will hunt livestock, although this has not been observed.