Animals are expected to synchronize activity routines with the temporal patterns at which resources\udappear in nature. Accordingly, species that depend on resources showing temporally mismatched\udpatterns should be expected to schedule routines that balance the chances of exploiting each of them.\udLarge avian scavengers depend on carcasses which are more likely available early in the morning,\udbut they also depend on wind resources (i.e. uplifts) to subside flight which are stronger in afternoon\udhours. To understand how these birds deal with this potential trade-off, we studied the daily routines\udof GPS-tagged individuals of the world’s largest terrestrial soaring scavenger, the Andean condor\ud(Vultur gryphus). Andean condors vary largely in weight and show a huge sexual dimorphism that\udallowed us to evaluate the effect of sex and body size on their daily routines. We found that condors\uduse an intermediate solution strategy between the best times to exploit carcasses and uplifts, with this\udstrategy changing over the year. Bigger males scheduled earlier routines that aligned more closely with\uduplift availability compared to smaller females, resulting in a partial temporal segregation between\udsexes. Condors’ routines reflect a sexual-size dependent trade-off that may underpin ecological and\udsociobiological traits of the studied population.
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