34 condors died in Mendoza and believe they were poisoned. argentina.topnews.cloud. January 22, 2018. A group of 34 condors, a puma, two sheep, a lamb and a goat appeared dead in the town of Los Molles, in the department of Malargüe. The bodies of the animals were piled up and partially burned, and because of their location a case of poisoning is suspected, very likely with agrotoxins that the inhabitants of the area use to control scavenging species.

The corpses were found last week. A villager gave notice to the authorities and from then on – a walk of about four hours is required to access the area – necropsies began to be performed and samples taken that were sent to Buenos Aires for toxicological studies, the results of which wait for two weeks.
“Farmers in the area require large tracts of land to raise livestock and their offspring, so animals such as the gray fox or the puma usually attack the young of sheep, for example. That is why these people sometimes poison one of those dead young, to eliminate this threat. This is our main hypothesis about what happened, “said Adr¡án Gorrindo, head Wildlife department, under the Ministry of Environment of Mendoza.
The survey of the corpses carried out by a team consisting of Fauna de Mendoza, Rural Police, Cullunche Foundation, Ecoparque Mendoza, Fundación Bioandina Argentina, Ecoparque Buenos Aires and Conicet researchers, revealed that not all the condors had died the same day, some took months and others were more recent. “We can think they used this place to kill carnivorous animals,” Gorrindo explained.
Vanesa Astore, director of the National Conservation Project of the Andean Condor, said: “It is ugly on a biological level what happened. The condor lives from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego and this killing is an irreplaceable biological hole, it is equivalent to half of the population of condors in Ecuador. “
“Birds are the most affected, they are the most sensitive to this type of agrotoxic,” Garrido added. “The cattlemen believe that the condor hunts live animals but it is not like that, the condor is not rapacious, it is scavenger. They seek to eliminate them because they have identified them as enemies of their livestock and it is not like that, “he lamented.
Gorrindo also informed that the criminal complaint has already been made in the prosecutor’s office of Malargüe. “Mendoza adheres to Law 22,421 of wildlife conservation and for a fact like this, prison sentences of up to two years are contemplated,” he said.
The bodies of the condors were found almost 3000 meters high. A statement from the Ministry of Environment of Mendoza informs: “Despite the deterioration of the bodies, 20 males and 14 females were identified. In frightful to plumage coloration, 30 adults, one sub adult, two juveniles and one undefined were determined. It is noted that also in the place were found a puma (Puma concolor) and domestic animals (goats and sheep), which makes us presume a case of poisoning “.
In Mendoza, the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) is declared a Pure Provincial Monument by Law 6,599 / 98 and protected by Provincial Law 4602, with its amendment Law 7308 and Regulatory Decree 1890/05.
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