After a prolonged release, the first radio collared King Vulture in Mexico is on its dandy way. In order to make sure the bird was doing alright and to test out the radio tracking, we followed the metronomic beep, beep, BEEP, beep until the louder beeps led us towards the "Mayan Condor".My little bit of radio tracking experience with horned lizards in Oklahoma served me well, because we are using the exact same equipment!
Mauro tracked for a bit, then gave me the receiver and headed down the trail to check on the trap. I wandered around for a bit, following the signal around. By the time Mauro came back, I had all but given up. "I think maybe its in the air?" I said, not believing it myself.
He looked up and immediately spotted it. I was standing right under the bird! Turns out, I do know how to radio track, but I'm a terrible wildlife spotter! I think its because I love looking at plants and get distracted.
Here's the image that Mauro and I saw. Mauro was able to figure out that the dark blob in the center is the King Vulture. It was raining on and off, so the bird looked rather cold, but Mauro says it was looking around and seemed very active.
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