Andean Condor

Considered to be the largest flying bird in the world, the Andean Condor is seen as a symbol of power and health.
Often times, certain animal species - even endangered ones - are hunted due to false beliefs that their meat or organs offer male virility or some type of cure for physical ailments and diseases in humans. It is a common belief by many villagers that the condor’s bones and organs offer many medicinal powers. Even though these beliefs are false, and grounded not in reality, but rather ignorance, the hunting practices threatening the condors existence is very real. Their ground bones are believed to alleviate rheumatism. Many natives eat the stomach of the Andean Condor because they believe it cures breast cancer. The eyes of the Condor are often roasted and eaten to sharpen one's sight, and their feathers are often placed under sleeping blankets to ward off nightmares.
For hundreds of years, the Condors have battled humankind for their own survival. They have been threatened by hunting, deforestation (loss of habitat), air pollution, food & water contamination and severe reduction of their food supply. In 1973, the Andean Condor was added to the Endangered Species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Even though an accurate census of the condor has yet to be initiated, it is believed that their population is greatly reduced and declining in Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru.
The Andean Condor prefers open areas that enhance their ability to search for carrion (dead) and dying animals, their main source of food. Throughout the Northern Andes, the Andean Condor can be found combing high above the paramos in search of their next meal. They also frequent mountainous areas, where steep, rocky cliffs are abundant. The cliffs offer the Condor an invaluable benefit of searching for food in wide open, non-forested areas, making their hunt much more productive.
The Andean Condor's range extended throughout the Andes from Venezuela in the north to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. Though they can still be found in most of the areas between these points, their numbers have greatly diminished, which has reduced their habitat to parts of Peru, with a small number of condors populating North Venezuala, North Columbia, and the cliffs in Patagonia.
Condors most commonly nest in ledges surrounded by steep cliffs and mountain ranges. The seclusion of this type of topography offers them excellent protection from predators searching for the eggs and their young.