Some people consider them unbearable kitsch, but for others, love locks are a romantic gesture. Couples vow eternal love and attach a lock with the partners’ names on it, for example to a bridge railing.
How long these relationships will actually last remains to be seen. But regardless of the love between two people, the locks can have unromantic consequences – the Grand Canyon National Park warns of this. The rangers in the US state of Arizona are therefore taking uncompromising action against it: “Love is strong, but not as strong as our bolt cutters,” says a post on Facebook. The reason for the tough announcement: The love locks on the fences pose a deadly danger to the condors that live in the national park.
More precisely, it is about the keys belonging to the locks. Many couples throw these into the famous gorge, which is up to 1,800 meters deep, as a sign of their unwavering love. The condors pounce on it there. “Condors are curious animals that examine strange things with their beaks, much like small children do. Condors also love shiny things. If they spot a coin, package, or shiny metal object like a discarded key, they might eat it,” the national park writes on Facebook.
However, the birds cannot digest the metal. “If a condor ingests too many of these items, it could die,” warn the rangers. To illustrate this, they have included an X-ray of a condor, where metal objects can clearly be seen in its digestive tract. The animal had to be saved with emergency surgery. The California condors, which are native to the USA, are already threatened with extinction. Between 1987 and 1992 the species was considered extinct in the wild. Thanks to a conservation program at some zoos in the USA, there are now almost 350 specimens in the wild.
In order to ensure the safety of the animals and order in the national park, the love locks at the Grand Canyon are removed every two years. Park rangers are urging visitors to avoid this type of display of affection: “People think leaving a lock at a viewpoint is a great way to show their love for someone. It’s not. Locks on our fences Leaving behind is illegal waste disposal and is like a form of graffiti.”
Sources: Grand Canyon National Park on Facebook / National Park Service
Watch the video: While hiking through the Grand Canyon, 13-year-old Wyatt Kauffman survives a fall from a nearly 100-foot-deep cliff. In the video, the young person describes the incident from his perspective – and shows humor despite the immense injuries.