Novasola Condor
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| Female/juvenile. Click images to enlarge. |
IUCN Conservation
Status: Endangered (EN)
Description:
Extremely
large raptor with long, broad wings. Uniformly black. Head mostly bare of feathers,
though with thin bands of fuzz, with pink skin, yellowish eyes, and pale bill,
which has a prominent, tooth-like point on each side, more like the beaks of
falcons. Adult males have brightly colored red and blue fleshy caruncles and
round wattles on each cheek. Females and juveniles have dark grey wattles and
lack a comb. In flight, appears all black except for distinct white wrist
patches, carries wings straight out, more like eagles than other vultures. Larger
individuals can reach 8.8 kg or 19 lbs. with a wingspan of 9.8 ft. making the
Novasola Condor the largest bird on Novasola in both weight and wingspan.
Voice:
Generally
silent. Primary vocalizations, or sounds rather, when given are hissing and
snorts. They may also click their beaks.
Habitat:
Though
quite rare, their range covers the entirety of Novasola, including Kosatka and
the Francis Islands. They are most common in the intermountain steppe and along
the coasts. Habitat generalists, they can be found in most ecosystem types, but
they prefer open to semi-open areas like prairie, chapparal, scrubland,
savannah, and tundra, as well as mountains, rocky cliffs and canyons. They may
use farmlands and rangelands occasionally but are absent in urban or suburban areas
and generally avoid human development.
Discussion:
In
many ways the most spectacular bird on Novasola, the Novasola Condor is the
largest endemic bird and often considered the largest bird in North America,
going toe-to-toe with the California Condor of the mainland. With a wingspan of
three meters, or over nine feet, the condor dwarfs most birds and is more often
mistaken for a distant small airplane as they glide, riding thermals in search
of carrion. Sadly, these awe-inspiring animals are endangered, and thus quite
rare.
Novasola
Condors are most often observed in open or semi-open spaces, especially coastlines
and beaches, rangelands, prairie, chapparal, scrubland, savannah, and
mountains, but they are still frequently seen in a diverse array of other
ecosystems like woodland and forests and wetlands. They roost on rocky outcrops
and ledges, and less commonly in large trees. Non-migratory, they remain in the
same locations for most of their lives, though their home ranges are extremely
large, averaging around 150 square miles, though this fluctuates throughout the
year. For most of the year condors are found in single pairs. Monogamous,
condors mate for life and remain with their partner for their entire lives,
which can be up to 40 years, however they may forage separately and will even
spend weeks apart. During the breeding season, they build nests on cliffs,
ledges, in crevices, caves, and in old, unused nests of other large birds. Though
uncommon, they may build nests in large trees, especially Island Redwoods.
Their nests are loose assemblages of sticks or debris, and they often build
multiple nests are different sites and will cycle between them year-to-year. The
female lays and incubates a single egg, while the male brings her food, and
both sexes raise the chick. Juveniles remain with the parents for a few years
before dispersing, and don’t reach sexual maturity until around five years.
Novasola
Condors are obligate scavengers, meaning the exclusively eat carrion. They
locate food with their incredible eyesight as they soar high above. They may
also follow other scavengers like Silver Vultures. Condors soar and ride
thermal updrafts to keep them airborne while they search for food, rarely
flapping their wings. They rely on large carcasses for food, so they are only
found in areas with healthy populations of large mammals like elk, moose, bison,
cattle and livestock, and marine mammals like seals, sea lions, and whales. In
fact, the condor’s species name, cetaphagus, translates to “whale-eater”,
because condors are almost always seen at beached whale carcasses. They, like
most Novasola carnivores, also take advantage of seasonal salmon runs and will
feast on salmon carcasses. Condors are rarely the first animals to spot a
carcass, but their incredible size allows them to scare off most other
scavengers and defend the food site. In a hierarchy of scavengers, condors can
fend off every other bird, as well as most mammals and have even been observed
chasing wolves off kills; its genus name Necrorex means “King of death”.
In coastal settings, condors mostly compete with Sea Eagles, while in the
interior they compete with Paramount Eagles. Because of their enormity,
Novasola Condors require lots of food, and much of their population decline has
been attributed to the post-colonization declines in large mammals from
hunting.
Like
the California Condor of mainland North America, the Novasola Condor is a
remnant of the Pleistocene, when large megafauna roamed. The condor likely
evolved to feed on the carcasses of mammoths, mastodons, and other prehistoric
giants that have since gone extinct, which in part may explain the condor’s
size. It is theorized that the mass extinction of megafauna at the end of the
last ice age caused the condor to become rare, because there is much fossil
evidence to suggest they were once much more common. Condors likely survived in
smaller numbers by subsisting on marine mammal carcasses and bison, but when European
settlers colonized Novasola and began exterminating bison and whaling the
coasts, the condor faced even worse declines. In 1960 there were likely only a
few hundred birds left, but with the ban on whaling and protection of bison, the
introduction of cattle, and protection of birds and the Endangered Species Act,
the condor has seen some population growth. Though not as rare as the California
Condor or the Black Crane, Novasola Condors are still a serious conservation
concern and the conservation efforts to save the species from extinction have
been extreme.
Because
they are so heavily associated with death, and are homely, and like other
vultures defecate on their legs and feet often, condors were heavily
persecuted, and some ranchers still treat condors as pests. Indigenous
cultures, however, revered the condor and it is an extremely spiritual and
sacred bird to most Novasola tribes, like the eagle, crane, and raven. Condor
feathers are used in important ceremonies, especially funerary rites, and they
are prominently featured in native art and storytelling. Tribal groups have
been among the most active participants in condor conservation.
At
the time of the NRC expeditions, as it is now, the Novasola Condor was
extremely rare. The Corps members documented only a handful of condor observations,
most limited to the Tower peninsula. However, determined to learn more about
them, Richard Reichwald spent much time on trips to observe the bird, and at
one point even camped by a cattle carcass just to more closely observe scavengers,
hoping a condor would appear. His reactions to seeing condors were like those
of anyone else, amazed and awed by their immensity and spectacle.
“Messrs.
Peterson and Farr alerted me to a Mr. James Widman, a local rancher who has
solicited their services to exterminate a wolf which has already familiarized
itself with two of Mr. Widman’s cows. Knowing my interest in studying the
habits of Novasolan scavengers, they suggested I approach Mr. Widman and
inquire as to the location of the most recent kill. Soon enough, another of Mr.
Widman’s cattle lay dead and he took me to the grizzly site within half a day.
Immediately obvious to me was that this cow, fully grown and hardly touched,
was no wolf kill. None the less, Mr. Widman allowed me to pitch my tent on his
property near to the carcass so that I may observe the buzzards as they come
in.
…
A
pair of ravens, who yesterday had been waiting impatiently nearby for their
chance at scraps, now outnumbered the Vulture and chased him off his perch. Not
long after, a dark shadow engulfed the carcass until a Condor, like a chief of
rot, flew into view and scared off all other scavengers, including the fox
which had been snooping on the horizon. It no doubt noticed the ravens and
their loud morning calls, and soon quickly spotted the corpse. I had the
pleasure to view such a dominant and macabre creature for at least an hour
until, satisfied with its gorging, it flew off to the north, only then allowing
the buzzards to return. Now that the cow had been fully opened and much of the
skin torn away, the Vultures had easier access to the flesh and now an immense
kettle of buzzards feasted on the carrion.
Either
content with my viewing, or too upset by the malodor, I resigned to dismantle
my camp and return to town.” – Richard Reichwald, personal log, May 30, 1906.
Later abridged and published in Native Birds of Novasola, 1912
“There
is perhaps no sight more stupefying than that of a Condor at its quarry. While
these elephantine birds are most always only observed from afar, soaring the
skies like mythic, ancient beasts, should anyone be so fortunate as to be in
their presence as they land that person would be struck by the bird’s true
enormity. These gargantuan birds descend from the heavens like angels of death,
Valkyries for the fallen creatures. I regret to have had so few encounters with
the Condor, though perhaps my nose does not.” – Native Birds of Novasola,
1912