California condor survey field notes, v1477
Page 197
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
California Condor Eben Mcmillan 18 February 1964 Corral, I could not see the area where the rabbit Carcasses lay nor where the birds were lighting or appearing to be lighting on the ground. I hiked to the Carcass of a Dead Bull that Eugene Percy had shown me and which he said had died of Malignant Edema some five or six days before. The Carcass of this Bull lay in a swale about one-quarter mile south of the Bear Tree Corrals. I photographed the Carcass of this bull, with both color and black and white film. It was badly swelled with the front and back legs on the upper side, sticking at a 90 degree angle into the air. There were signs about this Carcass where birds had been walking on the ground, mostly about the rear end. Some feathers were scattered about near the bull carcass also, but nothing could be found that would indicate that Condor had been near this Carcass. Eugene Percy told me that he had seen a flock of Turkey Buzzards, circling above where this Carcass lay, about three days ago. These were the first buzzards he had seen this spring. Mr. Percy also said that he understood the Bull was to have been vaccinated against Malignant Edema before he purchased it. He thought someone overlooked doing this or else someone inexperienced in handling a vaccine needle might have done the job of vaccinating this bull and not performed the operation properly. He thought the new vaccines for Malignant Edema, when properly applied, were nearly 100 percent perfect. Mr. Percy had purchased this bull as a replacement for another bull he had lost last winter. I hiked up soda-sulphur ridge at 10:50 A.M. to where the Lower Jackrabbit and Cottontail Carcasses lay—Nothing—