Among the New World vultures, the Andean condor is considered one of the most culturally and ecologically important species. However, their populations are declining over their entire distributional ...range. In response, conservation strategies have been implemented in many countries to reverse the increasing extinction risk of this species. The initiatives rely on extensive population surveys to gather basic information necessary to implement policies and to intervene efficiently. Still, there is a need to standardize the surveys based on seasonality and suitable environmental conditions throughout the species distribution. Here, we provide the first assessment of how daily temperature, rainfall, and seasonality influence surveys of Andean condors on a communal roost in the central Peruvian Andes.
Using an autoregressive generalized linear model, we associated environmental variables with visual surveys of adult and young condors at three different times of the day and three times a week between June 2014 and March 2015.
We found that both adults and young Andean condors showed a threefold reduction in the use of the communal roost after the beginning of the rainy season. Colder and drier days (dry season) are preferable for surveying, as we expect the total number of condors using communal roosts to reduce under rainy (rainfall = -0.53 ± 0.16) and warmer days (temperature = -0.04 ± 0.02) days. Therefore, the significant variation in the use of roosts across seasons and hours should be carefully accounted for in national surveys, at the risk of undermining the full potential of the communal roost surveys. Moreover, we also found a strong bias towards immatures (about 76%) in the adult:immature ratio and a remarkable absence of Andean condors during the wet season. These results suggest that the species might be using other unknown communal roosts hierarchically. Such results provide key information for selecting priority areas for conservation and selecting the best time to survey this species in the tropical Andes. Finally, it may open a fruitful avenue for further research on the protection of the Andean condor.
The South American fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) historically suffered population declines due to El Nino events and anthropic activities. However, government policies and conservation efforts ...have led to population recovery in some breeding colonies along the Peruvian coast. The taxonomic status of the South American fur seal is still under revision, with the proposal of a unique subspecies called the Peruvian fur seal (PFS). This subspecies is geographically isolated and has dispersed towards higher latitudes, potentially leading to gene flow with other fur seal populations. This study presents records of fur seals along the northern coastline of Peru, including sightings of juveniles and an unusual birth event. The findings highlight the need for monitoring programs and protection of new coastal marine sites in northern Peru to conserve the diversity of the Peruvian fur seal. Citizen science and an interconnected stranding network are crucial for monitoring and compiling information on these species.
