Farming

Farmer accidentally kills 2.5% of country’s condor population with poison

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A Bolivian farmer accidentally killed 35 condors with strychnine while trying to protect his livestock from a puma living in the area, according to Bolivian authorities after a slow and much-criticized investigation.

The large number of deaths was likely due to the behavior of the species at the time of feeding, with sometimes as many as 40 condors feeding on one carcass, according to Huascar Bustillos Cayoja, a researcher with the University of Bern in Switzerland and a professor of Ecology and Protected Areas at Udabol University in Bolivia.

By Milan Sime Martinić

Drones Helping with Elephant Problems

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Everywhere humans and elephants coexist, they come into conflict, resulting in injuries, deaths, and ruined crops.

While governments compensate farmers and others for injuries and ruined crops, people in countries like Tanzania and Kenya have said they believe the government’s real priority is the elephants, which bring in tourist dollars.

A few years ago by accident, a drone pilot in Tanzania discovered that elephants he was filming were afraid of his drone. Because conservationists had been looking for a way to deal with elephants getting too close to humans and farms, they seized on the opportunity and added drones to their bag of tricks, which already included making loud noises, movement, firing guns into the air, charging elephants with vehicles, and hanging spicy chili-soaked sheets.

Farmers and the groups that help them are still looking for a better, long-term solution to the elephant problem.