VIDEO: Large Condor Reunites with the Man Who Saved It

Animals can be social creatures, too.

They can shows emotion, they can fell pain, they can be hurting and they can be grateful.

Animals always show gratitude to humans when they have reasons to do so.

This video shows a large condor hugging and thanking the man who saved it.

According with ViralNova, the rescuer never thought after rehabilitating the large bird and setting it free that the bird would ever remember his good deeds, let alone return to thank him for his selflessness. But fortunately, the now-grown condor recently returned to visit his rescuer and give him a heartwarming embrace for all his help.

According to defenders.org, the California condor is one of the most magnificent birds, with wings spanning an amazing nine and half feet! It is black in color with white underwing patches and sports a bald head with very few feathers.

The color of the head varies from white to reddish purple. The bare head is an adaptation for hygiene since they eat dead and rotting meat and must, for the most part, stick their heads into the carcasses to feed. As unappetizing as this may seem to us, scavengers like condors are vital to the natural ecosystem. They are nature’s cleaning crew.

Condors consume carrion (dead animal carcasses). The birds prefer the carcasses of large dead animals like deer, cattle, and sheep. However, they are also known to eat the carcasses of smaller animals like rodents and rabbits.

The California condor population steadily declined during the 20th century until there were only 22 known to exist in the world. The last of the free-flying condors were taken into captivity in 1987 in order to save the species from extinction.

There were no California condors in the wild between 1988 and 1991, but reintroduction efforts began in early 1992 and continue today. As of May 2013, there are approximately 435 California condors in the world, about 237 of which are free-flying in California, Arizona and Baja California, Mexico.

California condors live in rocky, forested regions including canyons, gorges and mountains. They historically ranged throughout the western U.S. from Canada to Mexico, with some populations as far east as Florida and New York.

The species’ current range includes California’s southern coastal ranges from Big Sur to Ventura County, east through the Transverse Range and the southern Sierra Nevada, with other populations in northern Baja California and in the Grand Canyon ecoregion in Arizona.

Condors can soar to heights of 15,000 feet and may travel up to 150 miles a day in search of their next meal. They do not have a good sense of smell, so they find their food mostly by their keen eyesight. Like vultures and other scavengers, condors are part of nature’s cleaning crew. Things could get pretty messy without the services of these important animals in the ecosystem!

California condors most often nest in caves or crevices in rock faces, but are also known to nest in tree cavities. Instead of having many young and gambling that a few will survive, condors produce very few young and provide an extensive amount of parental care.