“2,200-Year-Old Andean Condor Dung Reveals Insights into Species’ Diet and Habitat Changes”

Nationalgeographic.co.id—A team of environmental scientists in Argentina reported finding a 2,200-year-old pile of condor droppings in the Andes mountains. The findings are important to scientists, because they can study the species’ diet, changes in habitat and past environment.

Understanding how animals respond to large-scale environmental changes is difficult to achieve because monitoring data has rarely been available over the last few decades, if at all.

“Here, we demonstrate how various palaeoecological proxies (eg isotopes, geochemistry, and DNA) from the droppings of the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) from Argentina,” the researchers wrote.

They have explained the findings of the team of scientists in Proceedings of the Royal Society B recently. The journal is published under the title “A 2200-year record of Andean condor diet and nest site usage reflects natural and anthropogenic stressors” which can be accessed online.

To note, for the past 2,200 years, the Andean condor (He is a vulture), among the largest known flying birds in the world, has nested—and excreted—in a cliffside cave in northern Patagonia, Argentina.

Now researchers are studying the large top piles of bird droppings to learn more about the endangered species and how it has adapted to its environment over time.

To study donut-shaped piles of poop, which are roughly 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter, the researchers carved them out like a cake, removing a piece of poop 10 inches (25 centimeters) deep.

Thanks to the location of the deposits in caves, the preserved muck has been well protected from wind and rain, allowing it to accumulate over thousands of years, according to the study.

“By looking at the different layers, we can go back in time,” lead study author Matthew Duda told Live Science.

Duda is a biology graduate student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. “We used carbon dating to date the nests and dung piles, which are more than 2,000 years old.”

By examining the well-preserved droppings, the team discovered how the condor’s diet evolved over time.

“Condors are scavengers, and at one time they would fly along the coast and eat dead whales and native species like llamas and alpacas,” said Duda.