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4  On a Record of the Condor from Panama

4  On a Record of the Condor from Panamá. 

My researches relating to the Andean Condor are at once a study of the species itself, but one with a focus on its distribution.  The underlying arguments I have put forward, that the condor is a creature which is capable of extra-limital movement and which has also, to a major degree, demonstrated such movement, are the nuclei of my thesis and without which would nullify the whole of these arguments. 

A discussion on the distribution of this or any species must begin with records of occurrence, either as records of breeding behaviors or of non-breeding movements or dispersal.  Presently, the Andean Condor has been recorded as a resident, breeding bird in six South American nations, and, in addition, a reintroduced resident population of a small number of individuals is now active in Venezuela, where the wild population had been extirpated by 1960.  Also, there are records of extra-limital movements in two other South American countries, Brazil and Paraguay.  Thus, this summates where the Andean Condor has been known by legitimate, authentic record, from the literature.  There are also birds in captivity around the world, and the erroneous record of early writers who ascribed the Andean as a North American raptor.  

Given the profile of my presentation, it may be difficult to argue for the Vultur gryphus being capable of extra-limital movement, especially due to the lack of any known extra-limital movement of it in South America or areas proximate to the Andean chain.  To argue that cases of giant birds seen in the United States are likely condors wandering four to six thousand miles from their true domain may at first seem difficult to accept due to the lack of known extra-limital movement from the records themselves.  However, forthcoming posts and discussion will hopefully address and offer remedy to the objections.

Since having begun to scrutinize records of Andean Condor distribution, I was offered a vague comment–no reference–about the condor having a single record of occurrence from a country not part of the contagion noted above–the Republic of Panamá.  Through a tedious route I was, eventually, able to trace the actual source of this assertion, but to argue for any published record of it in that country was something I saw as a conspicuous point which needed rectification.  I examined the following:

A Guide to the Birds of Panama (Ridgely & Gwynne)

Birds of the Republic of Panama (Wetmore)

The Birds of Panama:  A Printable Checklist Including 972 Species (Montañez)

The Unofficial Addenda and Corrigenda to Robert S. Ridgely and John A. Gwynne’s “A Guide to the Birds of Panama” (Montañez)

Xenornis, [website of Darien Montañez, not recently updated]

Sociedad Audubon de Panamá, website

A review of the above left me without any references whatsoever to the Andean Condor, either by vernacular or scientific name.

Having taken up the question again more recently, however, I was eventually supplied with a link from the site of the Aves de Rapina Brasil, which included “[U]m éspecime depositado em Michigan State University (MSU Verterbrate Collection  – http://www.groms.de) datado de 1905 foi coletado no Panamá.”  [Link cited therein unavailable.]

http://avesderapinabrasil.com/vultur_gryphus.htm

The specimen to which they are referring I traced to the Michigan State University collection on Ornis, also through the VertNet database.

http://www.ornis.net.org/

http://portal.vertnet.org/search?q=vultur

http://portal.vertnet.org/o/msu/or?id=8335m

RECORD OF THE SPECIMEN–

Modified

2015-04-09

BasisofRecord

Preserved Specimen

OccurrenceID

urn:catalog:MSU:OR:8335M

CatalogNumber

8335M

OccurrenceRemarks

“Locality information was spelled as “”Viriguas Peak, Prov. of Veriguas”” in the original written record.”

RecordedBy

Scott Turner

EstablishmentMeans

native

OccurrenceStatus

present

Preparations

egg

EventDate

1905-12-25

HigherGeography

Central America | Panama | Veraguas Province |

StateProvince

Veraguas Province

Locality

Veraguas Peak

ScientificName

Vultur gryphus

TaxonRank

species

On September 17 I wrote to the Collections Manager, Laura Abraczinskas, Michigan State University, who was able to provide me with additional information.  The specimen was received about March 21/22, 1956, by museum curator Rollin H. Baker.  It had been received as a gift “from the Turner home on East Mt. Hope Avenue” in Lansing, Michigan.  “Mr. Turner was born in Lansing in 1880; his father was born here in 1850.  He is a prominent mining engineer (grad. U of Mich.).  He lives in Greenwich, Conn.  He and Mrs. Turner have no children.  Mr. Turner is a sportsman and was president of the Turtle Lake Club and a member of the Explorers Club and the Boone and Crockett Club.”

In late August, 2006 the record was served to the Ornis and GBIP database portals, and later to the iDigBio database portal.  Prior to this, there is nothing to show for an actual record of it, print or otherwise.

In addition, I independently learned that the collector, Scott Turner, was a mining prospector in Panamá in the years following his graduation from the University of Michigan in 1902.  Turner contributed to the Mining and Scientific Press (“Mining in Panama,” 96: 130–132).

     “The district to the north of Cañazas, marked by the two peaks of Viriguas that rise to an altitude of about 3500 ft. and are visible for a radius of 20 or 30 miles, is perhaps the most interesting region in Panama, not as much from any chance of successful mining in the future as from the evidence of work that has been done there in days gone by.  Viriguas is about 30 miles from Cañazas, over extremely rough trails, and three good-sized rivers, the Cañazas, Piedra, and San Pablo, must be crossed, together with many smaller streams.”

Two photograph illustrations [131] from Turner’s report.

Map of Panamá–area of Veraguas province highlighted, with approximate location of collection site marked. 

Panamá’s provincial boundaries were different then, from this 1912 map, but later changes do not allow question as to the collection of the egg being in some other region or province of the country.

That an egg of the Andean Condor was presumably collected in Panamá gave me reason to consider the condor having, substantiated from this one instance, a record of some attempted breeding there.  My comment was forwarded to Pamela Rasmussen, also of Michigan State, who examined the specimen.  Measurements of the egg (96.5 x 59.6 mm.) revealed an unexpected reversal as to its identity–it is not an Andean Condor at all.  In actuality, the size of the egg fits very closely withing the range of that of the King Vulture Sarcor[h]amphus papa (89.4–93.7 x 60.7–67.1 mm.) and smaller than that of the Andean (102–126 X 65–72 mm.).  See Schönwetter, Handbuch der Oologie (3: 137).  The large end is narrower with the greatest diameter more towards the center than typical King Vulture eggs, but nonetheless the texture and shape are close to that species, this diagnosis also including consideration of any bird groups which lay large white eggs such as albatrosses.

Overall, I do not dispute the diagnosis.  Thus, this “record” of the Andean Condor in Panamá, Veraguas province, is heretofore treated as erroneous.  In the spirit of being comprehensive towards assessing the distribution of a species (which for the condor my arguments mandate consideration) or the records of species within a certain geographic entity, my summary may be of interest to those who are preparing lists of the birds found in Panamá, however the Andean Condor is not an “established” species there, the western historic limit of its Colombian distribution just 130 miles from the country.  Treatment of the record would likewise prevent any further, possible difficulties relating to it.  The specimen is not an Andean Condor; it is closest to the King Vulture and in my opinion should be treated as such, the latter a form common to Panamá as well as to tropical America.

That the one and only purported record of Andean Condor’s occurrence in Panamá–and in any country not part of South America–can now be disputed and also categorically rejected does not, ultimately, help the arguments I am making, noting the lack of its known extra-limital records in the whole of the continent.  This is a difficulty which will be later given discussion on a broader evaluation of the question of the Andean’s occurrence in a separate report.  Indeed I have reason to presume that accidental birds, in their movements, would naturally pass over land and not water and will cross the isthmus, but again the reason for the lack of records, specifically the lack of those in Panamá, is a separate issue.

The discussion also underscores the relevance of an examination of the distribution and behavior of related species such as the King Vulture.

The Michigan State collection also holds a prepared egg (MSU:OR:4906M) which was ascribed to the Andean Condor, but, as was relayed to me, this is in fact an example of the European Black Vulture Aegypius monachus, and for both this and the Turner collection specimen should their records be emended.

The reason for the lapse of identification may have been, possibly, a lack of judgment on the collector, who was not familiar with nor unable to compare the eggs of both species.  It may have also been, perhaps, a consequence of conflated scientific names, from either Turner or, possibly, Rollin H. Baker, when taking inventory of the Turner collection (if its label was altered or removed).  At the beginning of the early 20th century Sarcorhamphus (or Sarcoramphus) was the genus name used in place of Vultur, with Cathartes or Gypagus often used for Sarcorhamphus.  As both species bear certiain affinities, they have even been treated as congeneric (J. E. Gray, List of the Specimens in the Collection of the British Museum, 2nd ed., 2–3; (1848)).

I am grateful to Laura Abraczinskas, Michigan State University, for confirming the specimen in the collection; Pamela Rasmussen, Michigan State University, for diagnosis of the specimen; and to Douglas Russell, Natural History Museum at Tring, for providing an example image of a specimen for comparison.

Mathew Louis

Written October 15, 2015.  

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This entry was posted in Andean Condor, King Vulture and tagged African White-backed Vulture, Andean Condor, King Vulture, Panama.