Table 1.

Fittingly analogous to the most popular of sports expressions—Citius, altius, fortius—Communiter (Faster, higher, stronger—Together), which transcends its primary interpretation by also referring to the way in which a specific task or activity should be carried out, as a community [35,36]—a parsimonious checklist of the attributes of a top scavenger is postulated.

attribute	rationale for top scavenger species	the Andean Condor, a top scavenger
faster	a top scavenger significantly reduces the time in which carrion is consumed	Andean Condors take advantage of social foraging to quickly find a carcass, and each of them is capable of eating up to at least 3 kg of food in one sitting [7,8]. Furthermore, since they usually form large feeding groups [37], they have the potential ability to quickly consume any carcass.
higher	it fulfils its scavenging role on a large spatial scale, significantly larger than that of other scavengers, both at the individual and population levels, being able to detect and access a high proportion of available carcasses	With home areas of up to c. 50,000 km (authors’ own data), Andean condors are probably the non-migrant vulture species that show the greatest movement capacity of all. This, accompanied by the well-known visual capacity of vultures [7,8], makes it more likely that condors will detect and access a greater number of carcasses.
stronger	it is able to access (i.e. rip open and tear apart) and consume any type of carrion available, with a body size that allows it to exert physical dominance over the rest of the scavengers	Weighing between 8 and 15 kg, it greatly exceeds any other avian scavenger in size. Within its distribution range, it is followed in size by the King Vulture (3–4 kg weight), followed by the rest of the obligate and facultative avian scavengers (around 2.5 kg weight) [31]. Therefore, it is unlikely that any avian scavenger has a chance of displacing a condor in a one-to-one situation. Culpeo foxes (Lycalopex culpaeus) (7–13 kg weight) are the largest scavenging mammals throughout the Andes and, although it is uncommon to see them feeding alongside condors when they do, it is also uncommon for them to interfere with each other, noting that when condors are found in large numbers, culpeos generally stay away from carrion, just as other scavengers do. Furthermore, a male Andean Condor may be able to open a hole in the toughest part of the hide of a cow carcass with less than 15 pecks (own observations).
together	it is an axis for coexistence among scavengers by being able to structure competition and facilitation, irrespective of the scavenger species it interacts with	Regardless of how many condors feed, their participation facilitates (e.g. by opening a large carcass and allowing access to other smaller scavengers) or limits (e.g. by almost monopolizing a carcass thanks to its number, size and strength) the participation of other scavengers. In this way, it can regulate carrion consumption in the communities and ecosystems of which it is part.