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We tagged Andean condors to find out how huge birds fly without flapping

We tagged Andean condors to find out how huge birds fly without flapping

My colleagues and I are experts in bird flight and we asked just how little flapping these condors and other soaring birds can get away with, and if there are particular environments or weather conditions that are more costly to fly in. As a field team we spent days sitting in the Patagonian steppe, drinking maté and waiting for the condors to land at sheep carcasses or bones left over from the slaughterhouse that had been specially placed to try and tempt them down. It turns out putting the tags on is much easier than getting tags back.