Implications of human-wildlife conflict on the diet of an endangered avian top predator in the northern Andes.

Conflicts between rural people and the Endangered Black-and-chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori) are a prominent conservation concern in the northern Andes, as at least 60 eagles were poached between 2000 and 2022 in response to poultry predation. Here, we conducted direct observations to analyze the Black-and-chestnut Eagle diet and evaluated how forest cover affects the feeding habits of the species during nestling-rearing periods in 16 nests located in different human-transformed Andean landscapes of Ecuador and Colombia. We analyzed 853 prey items (46 species) delivered to nestlings.

Bridging Evolutionary History and Conservation of New World Vultures.

The New World Vultures (Cathartidae) include seven species of obligate scavengers that, despite their ecological relevance, present critical information gaps around their evolutionary history and conservation. Insights into their phylogenetic relationships in recent years has enabled the addressing of such information gaps through approaches based on phylogeny. We reconstructed the ancestral area in America of the current species using two regionalization schemes and methods: Biogeography with Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis (BioGeoBears) and Bayesian Binary Model-Monte Carlo Markov Chains (BBM-MCMC).

Anthropogenic threats to the Vulnerable Andean Condor in northern South America.

Vultures comprise one of the most threatened groups of birds worldwide. With a total population not exceeding 6700 mature individuals, and in rapid decline across its range, the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) is listed as a Vulnerable species in the IUCN red list. Local population extinctions and decline are of particular concern in northern South America, where no more than 340 condors may exist at present.

Human-raptor conflict in rural settlements of Colombia.

In human-transformed landscapes, predators may feed on domesticated animals, and thus affect human well-being, creating negative perceptions and leading to conflict with people that can result in the persecution of the predator. We studied the factors that influence the perception of the Black-and-chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori) in four rural Andean communities in Colombia and compiled historical and recent evidence on the persecution and other causes of mortality of this species in the country. We applied 267 questionnaires and conducted 16 interviews with local inhabitants, via visits to homes and schools in the surroundings of S.