Insurance Investment Forum 2018 | [i3] Investment Innovation Institute | 19 June 2018 | Intercontinental Double Bay Nsw, 33 Cross St, Sydney NSW 2028, Australia

The condor is often thought of as a somewhat unsightly bird with a head that is largely characterised by the patches of naked skin that are only sparsely interrupted by scraggly feather growth. Its image isn’t helped by its macabre dietary habits of scavenging for food by feasting on animal corpses, often overeating to the point that it can no longer lift of the ground.

But there is another side to this bird that has its own elegance. The condor is the most efficient creature on earth, having reduced the amount of calories it needs to travel a kilometre, relative to its weight, to the bare minimum.

Condors initially spend energy to flap their wings to rise off the ground, but after attaining a certain height they sail on the air. By utilising its large wingspan and air currents condors can move their body mass much more efficiently than any walking or running creature on this earth.