Thanks to the efforts of many people, eight condors were transported from the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park by truck, back across the border to the Sierra San Pedro de Martir release site on Tuesday, March 11th. This was the first time we transported condors across the border by land and not by air.

As complicated as flying the birds to the site is, the ground route proved even more troublesome. Even with the best advanced preparation for this trip we ended up delayed at the border for several hours more than expected, which convinced me that in the future we’ll be flying the birds to Mexico whenever possible. Luckily the cool temperature day made the trip tolerable for the birds and by that evening the birds were jockeying for position high up on release site aviary perches. They will remain in quarantine at the site for about a month and will be tested for specific diseases by SAGARPA (USDA counterpart) before they can be re-released.

Once we have permission from Mexico, we will be able to dramatically reduce the risk of food contamination by testing all carcasses and animal parts given to the birds with our new digital, field x-ray machine.

Many groups and individuals helped make this condor recovery effort a success, starting with Juan and Catalina in the field trapping, testing and helping to move the birds to San Diego, followed by the efforts of the veterinarians and medical staff at the Wild Animal Park’s Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center, organized and coordinated by Dr. Jeff Zuba. Managing the isolation and medical treatment of such a large group (beginning with 11 birds) was a challenge for the keeper/vet staff. Valerie Stoddard now has the International Health Certificate process engrained in her mind. Thanks also to our new condor post doctoral fellow, James Sheppard and vet keepers for doing condor watch while they were in the recuperation pens.

Thanks to Elvia de la Cruz and Eduardo Peters in INE for the fast work with the Mexico CITES and the HRZ and Dave Rimlinger and Carol Dittmer for hanging in there with the US CITES export permits. Dr. Fernando Sanchez continues to do the amazing job of coordinating passage through the frenzy of stamps and signatures from four agencies at the Mexican border, which are required to move the birds from one country to the other. Sheila and Fatima from the Wild Animal Park’s condor department helped drive birds back to the Sierra. Without these folks and more, we would not have a condor release program in Baja.

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