By Rebekah Marcarelli r.marcarelli@hngn.com | Oct 23, 2013 04:33 PM EDT
The solar-powered camera focuses on the “remote hills of Big Sur,” San Jose Mercury News reported.
“We put the camera right on top of one of the main feeding areas so we could zoom down and get identification of each individual,” Kelly Sorenson, executive director of the Ventana Wildlife Society, said. “Over the weekend when we were testing it, we had 25 condors in front of the camera.”
The site is located in an area without any internet or even electricity, so the researchers turned to solar power to study the highly endangered condors, Ventana Wildlife reported.
Trey Kropp of Wilderness Wireless set up antennas at a private residence on Big Sur, the antennas relayed the internet signal to another antenna on the mountain top and to another camera at the site.
The biologists that work at the organization deliver stillborn calves to the condor site to watch the powerful birds feed. The team may also start asking the general public to notify them if the birds are doing anything out of the ordinary or noteworthy, San Jose Mercury News reported.
The cameras can also help researchers keep on eye on whether or not the birds are getting lead poisoning by feeding on animals that are contaminated with bullets.
“We have to drive one-and-a-half hours up a dirt road behind five locked gates just to get to this place,” Sorenson said. “It’s an all-day thing. So this is an amazing tool for us to help monitor condors in the wild.”
This Wednesday the staff will let three condors that were raised in captivity loose in the area.
Warning: Possible graphic images of the brids feeding.
