But with development and the gradual disappearance of native wildlife, the Andean condor’s habitat has been forever changed. Without this tropical heathland, we would literally be parched and dead,” Sebastian Kohn, director of the Andean Condor Foundation in Ecuador, told AFP. Experts say there are only about 150 Andean condors left in all of Colombia, where there is no official count of the birds. The foundation worked with the Andean Condor Foundation in Ecuador, the US non-governmental organization The Peregrine Fund and the Jaime Duque zoo outside Bogota to rehabilitate and release Dasan and Illika back into the wild. Gilberto, Eduin’s brother, is lobbying other locals against buying into stereotypical misconceptions about the king of the Andes.

Source: Egypt Independent January 28, 2019 03:22 UTC