Tag: Andean
Ximena Velez-Liendo is saving Andean bears with honey
In 1998, at the age of 22, conservation biologist Ximena Velez-Liendo came face-to-face with South America’s largest carnivore on her first day of field research in Bolivia. Her life changed forever when she turned around to see “this beautiful, amazing bear coming out of the forest,” Velez-Liendo says. “It was like love at first sight.” She thought in that moment: “If I can do anything for you, I’ll do it.”
Also known as spectacled bears, Andean bears are easily recognized
A 2,200-year-old poop time capsule reveals secrets of the Andean condor
For over 2,000 years, Andean condors have been nesting — and pooping — in the same cliffside grotto high in the Andes. This gargantuan pile of guano is now providing an unprecedented peek deep into the birds’ past, revealing a surprising fidelity to raising chicks there even as the region changed dramatically.
Analyses of the deposit show that the condors overhauled their diet after European colonization of the Americas. The birds also practically abandoned the site for a millennium, possibly