The first camera to capture live streaming video of endangered wild condors is powered by solar panels.
Located at the Ventana Wildlife Society’s Condor Release Site in Big Sur, California; the camera is helping to keep tabs on the activities more than 60 condors.
Installed last month, the camera has been capturing some amazing live footage of the wild birds; which the group is sharing with anyone who is interested. You can view the condor cam stream here.
For Australian viewers, you’ll need to take a peek before midday daylight savings time. At the time of writing, two birds could be seen feeding on … something.
The pan-tilt-zoom camera; powered by 2 solar panels (and we assume, battery backup) sits on a grassy ridge in a canyon along the Big Sur.
The action is helped along by the placing of carcasses each week at the site; with some additional supplemental feeding. During daylight hours, biologists move the camera to areas of the highest activity in an effort to try to identify as many condors as they can and observe their behavior.
“This new webcam allows viewers to see condor conservation through the eyes of the dedicated biologists who are trying to save this bird in the wild”, said Kelly Sorenson; Ventana Wildlife Society’s executive director.
With a wingspan of up to 2.9m, California condors are the largest flying land birds in North America.
According to Wikipedia, the birds often go for a few days between feeding and then may gorge themselves on several kilograms of carrion at once; at times to the point of being unable to fly.
The California condor became extinct in the wild in 1987 due to poaching, lead poisoning from bullets in carcasses and habitat destruction. Captured individuals formed the basis of a breeding and release program which has resulted in approximately 231 birds now living in the wild.
Learn more about the condor camera here.
