Monday, June 16, 2014

Condor Camp {by R}

My brother and I went to Condor Camp last week with Ventana Wildlife Society.

We started off the day playing a game of adaptations. I was a cone shell snail. Then we introduced ourselves and shared what we wanted to get out of condor camp in a group circle. I wanted to learn more about thermal gliding and I also wanted to see a condor. 

Then my brother and I climbed into the 'Great White Shark' which was actually a large van that could hold 15 people. The other van was called the 'Lone Gray Wolf.' The adults drove us all to Big Sur.

We stopped at a visitor center on condors. And, even though it was closed, we got to look around it. Then we got a quick presentation on condors. 

I learned that lead poisoning is the biggest threat to California condors today.When a hunter shoots an animal with a lead bullet, lead scatters all around the flesh. If the kill is not found by the hunter, a condor could eat it and it only takes a miniscule amount of lead to kill a condor. And I definitely did not know that the condors get electrocuted on power lines because they are so big that they easily touch two wires, completing a circuit. 

We got to see how the condor tracker operates. Almost all the condors are tagged with radio transmitters. If you see a condor without a radio transmitter, it means that they were likely raised in the wild.

As you can tell, I learned a lot from Condor Camp!

No comments:

Post a Comment