关键词:
Human disturbances
Lead contamination
Poisoning
Scavenger conservation
Threats
Vultures
摘要:
While scientific knowledge is consistently increasing for several species of conservation concern, mitigating their population declines continues to be a great challenge globally. This is the case of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in South America. Scientific information on this species has increased steeply in the last years, but their population declines continue. Here, we review and analyze the scientific information available about Andean condors ecology with implications for its conservation. We also evaluate published and unpublished information about the different threats affecting their populations. Finally, we propose conservation actions based on acquired scientific knowledge, which should be of help for conservation managers and policy makers. The increase in scientific information on this species was mainly focused on subject areas as key habitats for roosting and breeding, food sources, intra and interspecific interaction, human-condor relationships, movement ecology, genetic composition, and health information. Worryingly, good demographic information is still lacking (e.g., population density, breeding success, age and sex-specific survival rates) which prevents the assessment of the population viability. The most important threats affecting condor populations that require urgent actions are poisoning with pesticides and lead contamination. Illegal shooting, impacts produced by human infrastructure and cultural threats are other threats affecting this species. There is not much scientific information on the potential effects of veterinary drugs ingestion, impacts of carnivore traps, pathogen microorganisms and disturbances produced by tourism or climbing activities. Importantly, the actual population impacts of most of the mentioned threats are still unknown. Although some basic ecological studies are still needed (e.g., demography), conservation policies should incorporate scientific knowledge acquired in the last years to produce better results