California Condor Eating Deer Heart

[TheVelociraptor15]

I love condors man they're my favorite birds. I don't give a damn if the stink or something, they're vultures for God's sake

[sammyhill69]

Yummy!!

[ARNAKLDO]

awesome creatures.

Also, those numbers in their wings make them look like helicopters 

[420LaYzIe420]

Number 36 punk'd number 10 for his piece of dead flesh.

[MrDanny111way]

albatros looks bigger

[tyl3r70]

lol random crows

[SiruselVaranus]

Thank you for uploading these awesome condor videos! You are educating many people on this magnificent bird!

[wolfybunny]

great shot!

[peacemtn]

Scarey guy!!!

[bighornsasquatch]

Hunting is not only important to our culture, it is critical to wildlife management - over the last two centuries hunters have played a key role in keeping herds of deer, elk, and pronghorn healthy & conserving vast areas of wetlands for ducks. Getting toxic lead out of the ecosystem is one more great contribution hunters can make to the health of our landscape. The condor simply brought attention to an issue effecting many scavengers & probably all of us eating shot game as well.

[MrByte2000]

@bighornsasquatch: I didn't realize that DDT was a concern for all of us eating shot game.

Last I heard, it was DDT causing a thinning of the shells of the already-far-too-few California Condor eggs that then caused more failed clutches of eggs to cause the population to drop.

[SiruselVaranus]

@mevneutron DDT killed many things but iirc condors were largely unaffected. The two poisons that effected them the most were strychnine and compound 1080. Also, condors were very successful living alongside humans for several thousand years. Only the gun proved to be their weakness. The main cause for condor endangerment was deliberate hunting. Not saying anything about hunters and hunting one way or the other...just how guns impacted the condor's status.

[SiruselVaranus]

Should have added in addition to lead poisoning, which, when you think about it, is another way that humans with guns kill condors.

[mevneutron]

@SiruselVaranus Well said my friend. I didn't say that hunting hasn't killed these birds; I said that second hand lead poisoning has not.

[SiruselVaranus]

@mevneutron but...it has.

[HarryPalma]

Awesome bird!!...Hunters!! remember!! Please do Not use lead ammo!!...we need to preserve these beautiful birds!!

[DeathShamans]

i love pinnacles, condors and ravens and deers : ) thanks for the video

[CLastRide]

California Condors????? I thought Condors are from Peru?

[ssnapcase]

i saw a condor the other day out in the wild. it looked like a turkey buzzard, but was tagged and had the white stripe on its wings. useless bird. stupid californians. they should let them go extinct

[JJColb]

Useless bird? I can think of a number of humans considered far more useless. Scavengers are actually some of the most useful animals on the planet.

[mevneutron]

@JJColb unless there are only 300 of them; then they aren't very useful,

[kevincrowe1]

snapcase, you represent the complete ignorance that Darwinism will hopefully take care of.

[praling]

oh... those are RAVENS... not crows... hehe, wow. big difference.

[ScottieDM]

I've heard of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, located along the southern part of Los Padres NF (east of Wheeler Springs). I'd assumed that was where they were.

But this video and others here on YouTube mention Pinnacles NM and Big Sur, which is much further north. Then the distribution map shown in the Wikipedia article (which looks kind of spazzy) shows them as being in the Pinnacles & Big Sur areas, and down by San Diego.

So where are these things living in the wild? Any in Los Padres NF?

[jimpus]

There are about 44 free flying condors living in the northern portion of the Los Padres NF in the vicinity of Big Sur and east to Pinnacles National Monument. This is in addition to another 35 or so down in the Sespe/Hopper Mtn NWR region.

[ScottieDM]

Wow, thanks for your quick reply.

So then that distribution map on the Wiki article is wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. ;-)

[Entomofauna]

Is fantastic to see these extremely rare species, very critically endangered, in the wild. Is bigger the number of pelts and stuffed specimens than the number of live ones.

[jimpus]

There are about 300 California condors in the world, with approximately half free-flying and half in captive breeding programs in various zoos.

[sierracuban]

@jimpus NOT TOO BAD to have over 300 condors total as of early 2011........In 1987 they were down to 22 condors ! And all in the Sespe area of Ventura County......

VERY GOOD PROGRESS ! ! ! And to think that many environmental groups were against capturing the remaining 22.......The California Fish and Game Dept. was correct in their decision......

[badguy622]

look at the difference between the condor and a hawk