The Andean condor is the biggest flying bird in the world. It lives in the mountainous regions in Colombia, as its name states. It is very important because it is the national emblematic bird of Colombia, and it also balances plagues by eating the mosquitoes. Therefore, the Andean condor is very important, not only as an emblematic Colombian bird, but also for the balance of our ecosystems.
The Andean condor does not live only in Colombia; it also lives in Venezuela and Peru, but it is important in Colombia because it is one of our national emblems. Its weight is 15 kilograms, that is why it is the heaviest flying bird on earth.
There are some causes for its extinction: First of all, indigenous people kill them, because they believe that its extremities can be used as a medicine to cure viruses or infections, both for animals and humans.
This animal is also endangered, because the human is destructing its habitat that are the mountains of the Andes mountain chain.
The Andean Condor has kind of a white necklace over de head and its peak is kind of light pink and it has very large legs with powerful and very sharped claws that allow them to break the bones of the dead animals, because the Andean Condor does not hunt;, it is a scavenger that eats the corpses of animals. The Andean Condor has the great ability to stay alive for approximately one month and a half without eating or drinking anything. Another good thing is that it is a very social animal that interacts with other condors without knowing them.
The Andean Condor is a fantastic animal, but they are killing them and if they do not stop or just care about its ecosystem, it is going to suffer a lot, because as the condor is a scavenger it eats the rests of dead bodies, so that they do not rot and damage, because if the animals rot, there might be infections for other animals and they would die, which can affect us too, because it can damage the soil and we are not going to be able to make agriculture, plant crops, or some other things. The other bad thing is that the condor is an animal that controls plagues, so that the ecosystem does not get infested with frogs or some other animals.
In conclusion, the Andean Condor is a very important animal because it is the national emblem of Colombia, it controls a lot of plagues, and it helps the land or other animals not to get infected because of the decomposition of dead animals. We all can help by doing little actions like not buying clothes of handcrafts made of Andean Condor skin, feathers or other body parts. By doing these little actions we all can help. The agreement is for ALL OF US.
Tomás Estrada
The Andean Condor