Condor Watch Talk

47 and 34 blackunderlinejuvenile

  • itsmestephanie by itsmestephanie

    These two females are almost always together; I haven't noticed other condors being with each other so often.
    Is there something special about these two birds, or do condors usually hang out with their friends and I just haven't noticed?

    Also if I see one of these condors, next to another with a partial tag that makes me believe it's her pair, can I assume it is, or should I only tag what I see.

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  • daishizukagmail.com by daishizukagmail.com scientist

    First: No, don't assume that because two condors are often seen together, they are always together. This will screw up our estimations of the social network later.

    It'll be really interesting to note which condors hang out together often and why. The volunteers that have been observing these condors for a long time have great insights to this, but the job for us is to analyze the data statistically to show these relationships.

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  • wreness by wreness moderator

    Black 43 Underline is my favorite condor. I developed a 'like' for her from seeing here in so many pictures, eating like a pig or lurking around the edges smirking at everyone. I noticed, too, like you have, that she is usually around her pals, 47 Underline & 34 underline. Then I noticed that these 3 are often with each other in some combination. They were all born in 2010 at the same area so they probably are buddies. I was told that you can sometimes see mates feeding together but have only seen this once (I don't always check the Bio mate/chick numbers to see who is really who, though) when they were at a carcass eating and shared a kiss. It was pretty obvious it was a Dinner Date 😃 Sometimes you can catch a "child" with a parent.

    As Dai pointed out, in marking partial tags, never assume you can fill in a blank with who you think the "pal" might be. As far as the relationships of Who Hangs With Who you're very observant and since condors are social animals, there's a complex set of of relationships/friendships/hierarchy stuff going on. You not only get to recognize who hangs with who but almost start to look for one when you see the other 😃

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