While cleaning out files from my computer I came across one that I made during the period when I worked on the California condor reintroduction project that I had completely forgotten about. During the holiday season in one of those years I had been playing around on my computer and, just for fun, decided to make a Christmas e-card from one of my condor photos. Anyway, I thought it was something that some of you fellow avian heads might find amusing so I’ve posted here (I guess in a dark comedy kind of way some conservationists might also derive a measure of satisfaction from it!).
Note that rather than consuming Santa, the condors in the photo are actually cleaning off remaining scraps from the carcass of a stillborn domestic cow calf (these juvenile birds were in our condor facility undergoing the standard on-site pre-release conditioning process prior to being released into the wild). The main food we fed to the condors was the carcasses of stillborn domestic cow calves which we acquired from local dairy farms. Personally, I found this to be a humane and ethical means of feeding the condors—no animals needed to be killed since the calves were stillborn and this method ensured that the birds were being fed clean (i.e., lead-free) carcasses. Should anyone be interested, you can learn more about these individual condors by checking out the 4 posts that I submitted under the “Conservation” heading in this forum in 2020.
Happy holidays!
Note that rather than consuming Santa, the condors in the photo are actually cleaning off remaining scraps from the carcass of a stillborn domestic cow calf (these juvenile birds were in our condor facility undergoing the standard on-site pre-release conditioning process prior to being released into the wild). The main food we fed to the condors was the carcasses of stillborn domestic cow calves which we acquired from local dairy farms. Personally, I found this to be a humane and ethical means of feeding the condors—no animals needed to be killed since the calves were stillborn and this method ensured that the birds were being fed clean (i.e., lead-free) carcasses. Should anyone be interested, you can learn more about these individual condors by checking out the 4 posts that I submitted under the “Conservation” heading in this forum in 2020.
Happy holidays!
