California Condor

The California condor, a nasty looking bird, but it is the largest bird in North America. It is the last surviving member of a genus. The condor lives in Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon area, and parts of Baja California. Weighing in at 30 pounds with a wing span of 3 meters (nearly 10 feet) this giant bird was almost lost to us. In 1987 there were only 22 wild condors. With the help of the San Diego Safari Park and the Los Angeles Zoo they condors have begun their recovery with a great start.

Ugliness

The condor is all black except for small white stripes under its wings. Since condors eat a lot of dead things they have fewer feathers around their neck to reduce chances of infection. In my opinion, this makes them uglier, yet it also makes them more unique. The skin color can even change color depending on the mood of the bird. Females are actually larger than the males, rare for most animals, except spiders.

Food

As a scavenger, the condor eats carrion. It can engulf up to 3 pounds in one meal! Being a scavenger they have no sense of smell, common among a lot of scavengers. In order to find the meat condors look for other animals already feasting.

Sexy Time

It’s not until the age of 6 that the condor begins looking for a mate. A male has to show off for the female by puffing out, trying to look badass, and it’s not until the female bows her head and accepts him that he can stop looking such a fool to onlookers. The condors are now mates for life! A simple nest will suffice and the egg is laid around February or March. There is a gestation period of 60 days but sometimes the condor baby will take up to a week to actually get out of the egg.

Conservation Efforts

Living in San Diego is the perfect place to help with the condor conservation movement. The San Diego Safari Park (formerly called the Wild Animal Park) has been really successful in breeding condors with the help of their puppets. These puppets are made to feed the hatchlings if the parents are unable to. Also, to help speed the breeding process along sometimes an egg is taken from the nest to induce the parents to lay another egg. This way they get 2 for 1! It was a slow process but the condors’ numbers are definitely growing. There are at least three active release sites in Arizona, California, and Baja California.

How’d They Become So Endangered?

Six years old is a long time that a bird has to manage to stay alive without reproducing. In addition to the long sexual maturity, finding a mate can be difficult. An egg is only laid every other year so the species doesn’t do too great alone. Habitat destruction, lead poisoning doesn’t help either though.

Should We Care

Native Americans have a special place for condors in their culture. In some tribes the condor was thought to bring back humanity and yet others still think that the condor was evil and the only reason why anyone defeated him is because he had to stop and drink some blood. Condor feathers and bones are used for many purposes in their customs. Either way, the condor is part of their story.  

For More Information

San Diego Safari Park's Success Story with Condor Breeding

http://www.sandiegozooglobal.org/success_stories/condors

Also check out their condor cam

http://www.sandiegozooglobal.org/video/condor_cam

Kauai Cave Wolf Spider

Bugs, spiders and fish may seem small but they can also become endangered! The Kauai Cave Wolf Spider from Hawaii lives in only 3 caves. Only 30 counts of the spider have ever been recorded.  Granted, the spider wasn’t discovered until 1973 it seems even worse to me.

Scary or Pretty?

As a spider lover I’m definitely going to go with pretty on this one despite the spider missing eyes. Many locals refer to it as the blind spider.  They’re less than an inch big, easy to miss if I was crazy enough to go looking for them in caves on the Kauai Island.  

Eating and Running

Most spiders catch their prey in a net but wolf spiders actually chase their prey down. These little guys are pretty speedy and they’re venomous. They’re completely harmless to humans but not if you’re a small animal. They feed mostly on the Kauai Cave amphipod which is sort of like a little crab. There aren’t a lot of amphipods either, only 80 have ever been documented. The wolf spider will also prey upon other small crustaceans. This is a true cave hunter since most wolf spiders rely on their eyes to chase down their prey.

Lack of Sexy Time

So little is known about this spider that I don’t know if the female eats the male after she’s had her way with him, as is the case with most spiders, or if he gets to live another day.

Kiddos

Most wolf spiders have larger clutches of eggs but the Kauai Cave Wolf Spider only has about 30 eggs per clutch. This “clutch” is then carried in the female’s mouth until the young hatch. Once they get larger the young can hop on her back and go for a ride until they’re old enough, and large enough, to go hunt on their own.

Why Are They Endangered?

Seeing that these spiders live in caves you wouldn’t think they would have a lot of competition for habitat loss but that is in fact their largest threat. Most of the caves they live in are private lands and most people just don’t care. They use these caves to their own uses, sometimes filling them in or dumping stuff in them. As is the case in other animals already discussed on this blog introducing species to an environment has also hurt the spider. They fall victim to cockroaches and ants. This also brings more competition to eat the amphipods that are also endangered. Droughts and other extreme weather changes also affect the mortality rate of these spiders.

What is Being Done?

Most efforts are focused on protecting habitats and enhancing habitats. Since a lot of the land is private the government cannot force land owners to not dump in their caves. I believe a large portion of focus should be on educating others about the spider. I’m sure half of the people don’t even realize what they’re doing.

Tips You Can Do

Even though this spider is in Hawaii there are certain things to take away from this.

1)  Don’t throw stuff in your caves! You don’t know who lives there.

2) Watch your pets if they go outside. You don’t want your dog to be responsible for eating the last bubuxala flower in the world!

3) Take a few minutes out of your day and learn what lives around you. It can be interesting too!

Numbat

When I first read “numbat” I immediately thought “wombat.” Yes, this is another Australian mammal; Australia really has the unique ones. Not only are they adorable creatures but they are the only species in their family. There was another subspecies of numbat but they have been extinct since the 1960’s. Also, as a marsupial it is actually diurnal (awake during the day) even though most marsupials are all nocturnal. I might just classify the numbat as one of my favorite animals since it is so cute! It’s hard to believe that there are less than 1000 in the wild. They live in Wandoo (a type of Eucalyptus forest) in a very small portion of the southwestern tip of Australia.

Their Cuteness

Cute things usually come in small packages which is exactly the case with the numbat. They are very small, a little bit longer than a foot and half of that is just their bushy tail. They usually carry their tail up and all fluffed out. In my opinion, a numbat is like a cute squirrel with a pointer face. Numbats also have a tongue that is as long as its body! It also has more than 52 teeth that are all different sizes and shapes.

Food

Despite a tongue similar to the anteater the numbat’s diet consists mainly of termites. This is also why the numbat is the only Australian mammal awake during the day. Eating termites would be pretty hard to do in the middle of the night. Numbats need about 20,000 termites a day. They might eat an ant or two if there are any in the mound but their diet consists mostly of termites. They’ve even regulated their schedules to the schedules of termites. You won’t see numbats drinking water very often because they obtain all the water they need from the termites.

Lack of Sexy Time

Eating termites really puts the numbats at a disadvantage for relationships. Termites are small and the numbat isn’t strong enough to break termite mounds. This means that they wait for the termites to move. For this reason numbats are very solitary animals. You just can’t have a crowd waiting for termites to make their “big move.” Numbats will get together around February or March to reproduce and the female is pregnant for only 15 days!

Kiddos

Numbats are a very unique marsupial in that they don’t have a pouch for their young. Instead, the numbat will give birth to its 4 babies and then the babies will crawl up to the mother’s nipples and just hang there until July or August. After that they spend most of their time in a burrow. Slowly picking up the termite diet a month after. Then in December they hit the road.

Why are they Endangered?

Foxes. A lot of people don’t understand the severity of invasive species and what it does to the current population of animals. The fox was introduced to Australia and ever since then the numbats have been declining. In addition to foxes are wild and domestic cats, all predators to the numbats. Being prey is even harder when you don’t have anywhere to hide. Frequent fires turn possible shelters to dust and leave the numbat exposed.

What is there to Do?

Luckily, Australians seem to really care about their endangered species. The numbat is an emblem to them so there are already a lot of conservation efforts in effect. There have been multiple successful reintroductions to protected areas. Breeding programs are also in effect at zoos like Australia’s Perth Zoo. Locals also monitor predators in the area. A great program called Project Numbat has raised over 26,000 dollars for the numbat. Radio collars give researchers a better estimate of where the numbat goes and where they can focus conservation efforts.  Also, add them to your list of favorite animals, share your love of the numbat and maybe the numbats will still be here!

Project Numbat

http://numbat.org.au/

Baby Numbat videos (you know you want to)

http://www.perthzoo.wa.gov.au/animals-plants/australia/australian-bushwalk/numbat/

Galapagos Penguin

I love penguins! I even have one tattooed on my foot so my love for them runs very deep. There are many different types of penguins, not all of them even live in Antarctica. I was heartbroken to discover that there are less than a thousand breeding pairs of Galapagos Penguins in the entire world. These penguins are the smallest in South America and they are on the brink of disappearing forever.

Penguin Basics

Penguins feed on small fish, in this case, extremely small since the penguin here is less than 20 inches tall and about 4 and a half pounds. They are so tiny! The adults are black and white but young penguins have a gray plumage, slowly molting to their adult colors.

Warmer Water Penguins

Living in the warmer waters is totally different from their amigos in Antarctica. These guys have to deal with waters from around 60 to 80 degrees. Not to mention when it’s time for an El Nino.  I took physical geography; most people don’t so I won’t get into the details right now.

Not on Ice but on Rocks

These penguins don’t have ice to live on; they have rocky cliffs and shores. They have adapted differently than most other penguins.  Galapagos Penguins have a very long and narrow bill because sometimes the food they eat is between rocks. The rocky cliffs are also utilized to build their nests which are quite effective against their predators. Not only do they have sharks to deal with but even hawks and rats can take a Galapagos penguin.

Sexy Time

As most people know penguins mate for life, a pebble is sometimes even given to one mate as a token of commitment. What happens to this pebble later? No idea! What’s awesome about living in the warmer climate is that it allows for mating throughout the year because of the change in temperature which in turn brings a change in nutrients available to them in the water (more geography stuff).  Most of the time the mother will lay 2 eggs at a time and 6 weeks later is hatching time. For the first month one of the parents is constantly watching the baby. They switch off to get food for the hatchling and themselves.

What the El Nino Means

Hopefully most of us are somewhat familiar with what the El Nino does. Basically it raises water temperatures by 20 degrees and the nutrients for fish stay in deeper waters which means the fish do as well.  El Nino’s can last for 3 to 7 years and the heat can just be too much for the penguins. Galapagos penguins use their flippers to shade their feet so they don’t get sunburned. Older penguins even turn a brown color from the intense heat. If anyone were to go down and see them at this time then the penguins would be hunched over in a sad attempt to stay cool. The last two El Nino’s reduced their population down 50%. Without establishing an equilibrium point with their environment these penguins are not destined to survive.

Endangered Status

Not only is the El Nino causing major decreases in populations humans haven’t helped either. Most of the predators that have put a damper on their population are domestic animals. Plus, being small leaves them as an easy target. Overall, the increased El Nino cycles that are perhaps caused from global warming is set to bring this species down.

What Can I Do

Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do to help the Galapagos Penguins but there are other penguins that are in need of help. SeaWorld has been successful in many breeding programs and has also established a Conservation Fund that helps penguins and lots of other animals as well. So enjoy the Galapagos Penguins now, but let’s save their cousins!

SeaWorld Conservation Fund

http://www.swbg-conservationfund.org/index.htm

Help the Penguin Project

https://www.washington.edu/giving/make-a-gift?source_typ=3&source=BOERSM

Adopt a Penguin (I want this!)

http://www.seabirds.org/adopt.htm