San Diego Zoo Donates Money to Condor Fire Relief Fund
Posted at 12:07 pm August 28, 2008 by admin
The Santa Barbara Zoo will become only the second United States zoo where the public can view the critically endangered California condor on exhibit. Santa Barbara will join the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park which has been exhibiting the California condor since the year 2000.
Lightening struck Big Sur on June 21 and ignited several wildfires in the Ventana wilderness that combined to become the Basin Complex Fires. Within 24 hours the wildfire cutoff the only access road to the Ventana Wildlife Society’s Condor Sanctuary where seven young condors, awaiting their release to the wild, and their adult “mentor” condor were being held in a remote field pen. The fire grew so rapidly that the US Coast Guard was called in for an emergency rescue by helicopter. Fortunately, all captive condors and staff scientists were evacuated just before the fire grew stronger and burned through the area.
We are happy to say that we have come to the end of a great California condor breeding season here at the Wild Animal Park. Our last two eggs of the season have hatched, and all our chicks are healthy and growing.
The animal carcasses that condors rely on for food are widely distributed across the landscape and are relatively unpredictable in their occurrence. Condors must regularly make long-distance foraging flights over large areas to maximize their chances to detect a suitable meal. Because of their large size condors can conserve energy by soaring for long periods without flapping their wings, similar to albatrosses. Condors require strong and consistent thermal winds to achieve the altitudes needed to make these long-distance soaring flights in search of food.
Continuation from More Nests in Southern California.
More nests translate to a greater challenge for the field crew to monitor the nests and the movements of each pair as they take turns foraging for food over the backcountry of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Kern and Los Angeles counties. Monitoring the nests closely can provide cues in behavior that might indicate there is a problem with the egg or chick.
Twenty years ago, the California Condor Recovery Program began a new era when condors known as AC-4 and UN-1 produced the first egg to be laid and hatched in a managed setting. The resulting chick, Molloko, turns 20 years old on April 29, 2008..
Hace 20 años, los cóndores californianos conocidos como AC-4 y UN-1 ayudaron a avanzar el California Condor Recovery Program con el primer huevo puesto y empollado en un zoológico. El polluelo, Molloko, cumple 20 años el 29 de abril del 2008.
The first two California condor chicks for the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park 2008 season have hatched. The chicks, the 140th and 141st to hatch at the Wild Animal Park, are being hand raised by keepers.
Los cuidadores del cóndor de California en el San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park estan criando dos polluelos, los primeros en empollar en el Parque durante la estación del 2008. Estos polluelos, el cóndor 140 y el 141 en nacer en el Parque, serán criados a mano.
A San Diego County high school student hand made and donated a condor puppet to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park California condor program for use in the hand rearing of chicks.
Un estudiante en una preparatoria en el condado de San Diego fabricó un títere hecho como un cóndor y lo donó al programa de recuperación en el San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park.
Kathleen Ferris, a 10th grade student in Vista, Calif., personally delivered a California condor puppet she handmade to Don Sterner, animal care manager in charge of the California condor program at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Puppets like the one Kathleen created are used by condor keepers to feed, clean and care for California condor chicks that are hand raised for reintroduction into their native habitat in Baja California, Mexico. Thanks to the efforts of the California Condor Recovery Program, there are more than 140 condors flying in the skies of California, Arizona and Mexico and approximately 150 condors in the four breeding centers including the Wild Animal Park.
Eight California condors returned to the Sierra San Pedro de Martir National Park in Mexico after being treated for lead poisoning at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park earlier this year.
Ocho cóndores de California regresan al Sierra San Pedro de Mártir en Mexico después der ser tratados en el San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park para envenenamiento de plomo.