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Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), Launches the International Vulture Awareness Day.

It is celebrated on the first Saturday of September every year.  

Vultures, a group of birds of prey, that includes condors, usually have a bad reputation they are perceived as dirty scavengers, but they play a crucial role in the health of ecosystems. The vulture’s cleanup the environment from viruses and bacteria, these scavengers perform incredibly important work that provides health and socioeconomic values to human kind.

 

California condor in Sierra San Pedro Martir, California Peninsula Mexico ©Patricio Robles Gil

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“God, I pray for the well-being of condor SB# 662. 

It has been three months since we last saw him, and we have not received any signal from his transmitter. I ask for his safe return. If we are fortunate enough to see him again, 

I promise to pray a Rosary daily for one year in gratitude”

 

Catalina Porras

             

A month later, male condor 662 appeared in the skies over of Punta San Pedro, and Catalina has been keeping her promise ever since, it will take almost 2 weeks of her life to pray day and night none-stop, that is the kind of commitment this incredible woman has to the future of the California condor.

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# Numb hummingbird

 

In the last days of September 2024, the temperatures began to drop in San Pedro Martir, in the mornings the valleys dawned white with frost, some birds were surprised in the middle of their migration to warmer lands, like this female hummingbird that sleeping perch in the frame of the entrance to the condor station. She was taken to warm herself in the sun's rays so she could continue her journey south.

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# Oldest trees, Centinelas de San Pedro Martir

The Mexican conservation organization Reforestamos México visit SSPM, to document some of the oldest trees in the park, to launch an adoption campaign with Unidos para la Conservación, of some of the centenarians’ pines, firs and cedars, call Centinelas de San Pedro Martir, to support the administration of the park.

 

                                           Juan Vargas show Ernesto Herrera, director of Reforestamos Mexico, some of the oldest trees.

 

There are few places in Mexico that are truly wild like San Pedro Mártir. We have a lot to learn from these unique ecosystems in North America. Their level of conservation invites us to reimagine forest management.

                                

Ernesto Herrera Reforestamos México.

 

¿Would you adopt a 600-year-old tree?

¿Adoptarías un árbol de 600 años de vida? ESTE PAIS

https://estepais.com/tendencias_y_opiniones/adoptarias-un-arbol-de-600-anos-de-vida/

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# Mexican Children Book; El sueño del cóndor, by Vivian Mansour; illustrations by Yanin Ruibal Pavlovich; photograph by Miguel Angel Sicilia/CONABIO

 

A beautifully narrated and emotional real story of the three California condor chicks born in Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, that traveled by plain 2000 kilometers to Baja California Sierra San Pedro Martyr National Park, to be released there as part of a binational recovery program of the species.    

 

Sponsored by Secretaría del Medio Ambiente CDMX and the Zoológico de Chapultepec.

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# On the April issue 2023, of Nexos magazine, the writer Jorge Comenzal present a very personal text about he´s first encounter with a Baja California condor at Punta San Pedro SPM. The text is in Spanish and a short version can be link here https://www.nexos.com.mx/?p=72233 the hole text is only for subscribers of this Mexican influential magazine. The title could not be more provocative, Ángeles carroñeros: un encuentro con el cóndor de California. Scavenger Angels’: an encounter with the California condor. Vultures are Jorge´s most treasure wild animals, he is working to narrate the Mexican condor story in a book.  

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# This spring, 2023 Juan and Hiram did a condor awareness tour, around cities, towns and communities, near The Sierra San Pedro Martir National Park:

1-4      SECRETARIA DE TURISMO- NANCY SERRATOS ECONOMIA Y PESCA

5-6      DIRECCION BOMBEROS

7-8      CORREOS DE MEXICO

9-18    MINERVA ESCUELA PRIMARIA ESTATAL MATUTINA JAIME NUNO

19-23  SECRETARIA PROTECCION AL AMBIENTE, SECRETARIO CONSEJO

24-25  ESCUELA SECUNDARIA NUMERO UNO

26-27  CASA DE LA CULTURA

28-29  RANCHO AGUA CALIENTE FELIPE TORRES

30-31  ELIAS JEFE KILIWA OFICINA INPI INSTITUTO NACIONAL PUEBLOS INDIGENAS 

32-33  MUSEO DEL CARACOL ENSENADA

34       ESTUDIANTES UABC

They gave talks of the importance and presence of this unique vulture in the region, they also gave pamphlets and the 2023 condor classic calendars.

# These 2023 winter season at SPM was week on snow storms, usually in the last 20 years Juan and Catalina had struggle with deep snow, sometimes almost 3 meter deep, even that Juan had to use the snowmobile to move around it was during just a few days. This is not good news, because that means less amount of water for the forest, and much less vital liquid for the agricultural fields below. A very worrisome sign of a changing climate.

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# This last march, spring came with full blooming power around Sierra San Pedro Martir, while the high-lands where still receiving snow, the western hills where cover with the orange California puppies, and the lower desert to the east, was painted with spots of purple abronias, nature was rejoicing.

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#highlands delicacy. There is nothing to compare after a hard and cold day in the field, like a warm apple pie, not much sugar and no cinnamon. On march 8, 2023, Catalina surprise everybody at the SPM condor biological station with this gourmet pie, there where strong fights for the last piece. 

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# Hermanamiento, Twinning

Fundacion para la Conservacion del Quebrantahuesos in Spain and The California Condor Programe in México. Two magnificent scavengers are represented here by these two initiatives in two different continents, they will unify efforts to help each other in training programs and in the promotion of a cultural vision of the importance of these large birds of prey.

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# Agreement between Pronatura Noroeste and the Mexican California Condor program. This Mexican conservation organization that works mainly in the northwest of the country, will use its fundraising capacities to help the condor in Mexico, embracing the adopt a condor program and they will do sow free of charge.

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# Agreement between The Wild Foundation and the Mexican California Condor program. The Wild Foundation will highlight the stories of Catalina Porras and Juan Vargas trough a podcast called Voices of Wilderness, of the work and challenges they face by protecting on of the most endangered birds in the world.

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# Let´s Celebrate Life, a BWILD initiative that show case the best wildlife videos in Mexico, embrace the California Condor program, by producing a short video of the return of the California condor to Mexico.

 

https://fb.watch/j10y1s8u8q/?mibextid=2Rb1fB

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LA ULTIMA LLAMADA, seis especies contra la extinción Documentary film, THE LAST CALL, six species against extinction. By Ivan Carrillo was nominated on the Santiago de Chile film festival, where the Mexican condor story is highlighted as one of them.

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20th ANNIVERSARY OF THE RETURN OF THE CALIFORNIAN CONDOR TO MEXICO

 

On August 12th, 2002 the first three condors arrived in Mexico from the San Diego Zoo in California, as planned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, in an effort to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. The U.S. Government believed the topography and remoteness of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula to be the most suitable habitat for these magnificent birds. They chose the mountain range of the Sierra San Pedro Martyr, which is protected as a national park —the highest protection of natural resources under the Mexican law—. Indeed, it has been the perfect habitat. Perhaps a token of its suitability is that here is where the last California condor was seen in the country in the seventies.

 

When Juan Vargas and Catalina Porras were hired by the San Diego Zoological Park, they moved to a remote section of the park, where they have been living ever since, working every single day toward the preservation of this species. Twenty years later, there are 39 free condors in the San Pedro Martyr Sierra, and 6 more to be released in 2023. This is one of the most awe-inspiring stories of success in species conservation in the world.

 

It is high time this story is shared around the world, so younger generations may be inspired to preserve other species. There is a lot to learn from the host of supporters and driving forces behind the reintroduction of the California condor to the U.S. and Mexico. This 2023 we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of this victory! Part of the festivities include the launch of this website, where anyone can adopt a condor to support its economic sustenance at the Sierra San Pedro Martyr. We also have upcoming events and exhibitions with new collaborators, universities, museums, NGOS, businesses and other special guests who may join the cause.

 

Some of the new allies that will join this celebration are:

SIETECOLORES

 

Sietecolores is a Mexican business specializing in public space design, with a focus on learning, recreation and harmonious coexistence. They create spaces that facilitate our understanding of the world. Sietecolores supported the SPM condor program with the construction of this website.

 

UNIDOS PARA LA CONSERVACIÓN

 

This Mexican conservation organization design this “IMBACKBCCONDOR” website, whereby they broadcast information, and the experience during these past 20 years of working towards the restoration of condor population in Mexico.

 

In 2010, Unidos para la Conservación commissioned a California Condor painting to the American artist, Hans J. Peeters. The resulting work of art was reproduced in a limited edition of prints, numbered and signed by the artist, and a series of postage stamps for the Mexican postal Service. In 2012, however, the Unidos para la Conservación office was robbed and the original painting was stolen.

 

Since 1990, Unidos para la Conservación has printed a small monthly calendar with wildlife images. The upcoming 2023 calendar’s cover features a pair of condors. A larger 2023 calendar features the wildlife of the San Pedro Martyr Sierra, with highlights of Juan Vargas and Catalina Porras and their work.

 

During 2023, Unidos para la Conservación will share the IMBACKBCCONDOR website on their social media: Fundación Mexicana para la Educación Ambiental, The Cougar Fund, Universidad Iberoamericana, Naturalia, BWILD, Artes de Mexico, Fundación Manuel Arango, The Wild Foundation, Papalote Museo del Niño, Pronatura Centro and Pronatura Noroeste, and the Instituto de Ecología at UNAM.

Autor Hans Petters

CALIFORNIA CONDOR TRIBAL HEADDRESS 

In October 2022, the Amazonian tribal chief Tashka Yawanana visited the San Pedro Martyr condor site sponsor by The Wild Foundation, to observe the condors and to do a ritual on their behalf. With permits form the Mexican government, we collected condor feathers left in the aviaries and on the feeding site, so Tashka could take them home, to his community in Brazil, where his friend Vinyya would create a headdress for him in the fashion of the Yawanawa tribe headdresses made traditionally for ceremonies and rituals.

 

Last November, Tashka wore the headdress to the COP27 in Egypt, and to tree different presentations, where he spoke to large audiences. He said: “These feathers stopped more people at the COP27 than any other headdresses I have worn before to other conferences.... truly fascinating, the power of a huge bird coming back from extinction.”

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ARTICLE: THE MAJESTIC CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN WAYS TO RECOVER – NEXOS, CRISIS AMBIENTAL – IN SPANISH. September 19, 2022              

María Catalina Porras Peña, Juan Julián Vargas Velazco, Gonzalo de león Girón y Alejandra G. Ramos.

https://medioambiente.nexos.com.mx/el-majestuoso-condor-californiano-en-vias-de-recuperacion/

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