discussion / Biologging  / 18 May 2020

California Condor Conservation - Tech & Resources

Edit: The first part of our condor feature is now live! Read it on our blog here.

Hi Wildlabbers,

Today we'll be sharing our first of two features on the community of conservationists in the California Condor Recovery Program. This incredibly dedicated network of organizations works to track, monitor, and research the growing population of wild condors, protect them from lead poisoning and other significant threats to condors, and breed and train captive chicks for release into wild populations. 

In our two features, we'll be discussing topics like how GPS and VHF tracking could be improved to help these organizations better understand the threats against condors and respond to those threats in real-time, how livestreaming cameras can help raise public awareness of this species, and what technologies could help captive breeding and release programs gather even more data.

We'd like to invite the WILDLABS community to use this thread to brainstorm and collaborate on solutions and innovations for condor conservation organizations, share resources, and connect with those working with California Condors!

We'll also be sharing resources from all the organizations mentioned in both articles, so check back for more information on all the technologies discussed, and more details on how you can get involved with the California Condor Recovery Program!

-Ellie




It would be nice to increase the volume of data received by the tagged condors by having local base stations at certain points in Pinnacles and Big Sur. Those stations could rely statistical information via some method (satellite, GSM, etc?). The range on these stations is quite good, too, so you wouldn't need maybe 3-5 of them (at most) for the entire area. I imagine if one is staged high enough in Pinnacles that you may only need one for that area and then one positioned somewhere at a high elevation in the Big Sur area.

We have a number of Argos users doing this already, and it's proven to be quite beneficial (primarily with marine species that either surface frequently or come to land periodically, think sea turtles). 

Anyways, just a thought/observation. 

Hi @EllieW 

Thanks for sharing the blog and an overview. I'm with Thomas, I think a hybrid Argos / LoRa solution could work really well for you so you can benefit from both forms of connectivity.

I am working on such a thing for raptors in the UK with the Arribada Horizon Developer's Kit, and Thomas will have a few soon too, so it would be good to see if it's of use in a future trial to test a solution.

Kind regards,

Alasdair

Hi Wildlabbers,

I'm sure many of you have heard about the massive wildfires in California that swept through condor territory, including Ventana Wildlife Society's Big Sur sanctuary. VWS and the other organizations featured in our Era of the Condor articles are currently hard at work locating missing condors (11 have yet to be accounted for) and assessing damage to the livestream and camera trap systems (many of which became useful tools for monitoring conditions and the approach of the fires right up until the system lost connection.)

If anyone has ideas for how the #tech4wildlife community can support the condor conservation community during this difficult time, please do share in this thread!

If you'd like to read about the current efforts to locate the rest of the condors and rebuild the sanctuary and camera systems, check out VWS's website for the latest news.

Ecological disasters like these fires are obviously devastating, especially considering that several condors are still missing...

But we DO have some good news to end this post on a hopeful note!! Iniko, the condor chick featured on VWS's nest camera and in our Era of the Condor series, has SURVIVED the fires!! Iniko's mum is also fine and still caring for her chick at the nest. Additionally, another chick, #1033, was directly in the path of the fire, but was rescued by the VWS-Pinnacles field team. Absolutely incredible to hear about these dedicated teams who are protecting condors even during unimaginable conditions!

If you'd like to see the video of Iniko being checked on yesterday by VWS field biologists, head over here.

If there are any further updates on the condor cams or ways that the WILDLABS community can get involved, I'll be sure to post!

Cheers,

Ellie

Hi Ellie.

Thanks for posting this and keeping everyone updated. If you're in contact with them, if they can post a list of things they need, either in terms of replacement tech, wish list, or equipment, I'd love to take a look and see if we have anything here to donate or can help them with anything.