Condor Exams at Chapultepec Zoo
Posted at 2:42 pm February 1, 2008 by Michael Mace
Recently on Jan. 15 through 17 three members from the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park (Don Sterner, Dr. Jeff Zuba and myself) and Marc Weitzel from the US Fish & Wildlife Service visited the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. The trip was part of a collaborative effort between the US Embassy, USFWS, Chapultepec Zoo, National Institute of Ecology, SARGARPA and the San Diego Zoo as an expansion of the condor program and a continuance for establishing a California condor breeding population in Mexico. Chapultepec Zoo, lead by Director Dr. Fernando Gual-Sill, is planning to support the condor release program in Baja California, Mexico in the future by raising condors for possible release in the wild.
Along with the staff at the Mexico City zoo, we preformed annual health exams on two California condors that we sent from the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park to Chapultepec Zoo in 2007. This endeavor was mutually beneficial by exchanging medical information and share condor management and husbandry protocols.
On the evening of the Jan. 16 we met with representatives from INE, PROFEPA, US Embassy, USFWS and Chapultepec Zoo staff to discuss the next phase of the Zoo’s involvement in the California Condor Recovery Program that would include the development of a breeding facility at Chapultepec Zoo. Offspring produced through this facility would be considered release candidates to support the San Diego Zoo’s Baja California release efforts.
During the development of this international program Aeromexico has been generously participating by providing airline tickets to participants as well as cargo space to safely transfer condors to Mexico City.
This additional program in Mexico City has been another milestone for the California Condor Recovery Program. The arrival of the two condors from the Wild Animal Park last year marks the first time in history that the California condor has been in public view outside the US.
Everyone that has been involved in the effort has been so helpful as we continue to collaborate internationally to save this unique species.
Michael Mace is Curator of Birds at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park.
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February 2nd, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Hopefully both condors were healthy and have adapted to their new homes. Has having the condors there generated a lot of interest in the Baja reintroduction program within Mexico?
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Zoo keeper notes and meet the Bloggers are really good aspects of this web site. It makes the blogs much more relevent to know something about the people who are writing them.