“The Ventana Wildlife Society is one of our partners in the conservation of the California condor,” said Michael Mace, Wild Animal Park curator of birds. “To date, the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park has sent 34 condors for release to the condor sanctuary in Big Sur. Ventana’s success is as important as our success in reestablishing this critically endangered species in California.”

Two condors were lost and are presumed dead after a June wildfire burned for more than a month through Big Sur, California, where the Ventana Wildlife Society operates its condor sanctuary. Two birds have not been located since the fires began in June, including condor No. 278, a male that hatched at the Wild Animal Park.

“It’s hard to put a value on the loss of a 6-year-old male that was about to breed and an up and coming female,” said Joe Burnett, Ventana Wildlife Society senior wildlife biologist. “It’s devastating to lose any birds. We can rebuild the pens, but we cant replace the birds.”

Big Sur is home to more than 40 wild condors, including mature condors that are now breeding in the wild. Three condor nests are within the burned area. Ventana Wildlife Society biologists entered two of the three nests, finding the chicks alive and healthy this week. The biologists suspect the third chick is also alive after observing the parents continuously returning to the nest. Unfortunately the fires aftermath created conditions that prevent the biologists from entering this nest.

The $10,000 donation from the San Diego Zoo will help replace equipment and supplies so that field biologists in Big Sur can continue to track the free-flying condors and monitor the nests. Contributions from individuals to the San Diego Zoo’s California Condor Relief Effort will help offset the Zoo’s donation and can be made by visiting the Zoo’s California Condor Conservation Website at www.cacondorconservation.org .

“Our whole goal is to get up and running without delay in our efforts to return the condor back into the wild so that it is once again self-sustaining,” said Kelly Sorenson, Ventana Wildlife Society executive director. “The Zoological Society of San Diego is playing a big part in helping us get back up and running.”

The 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park (more than half of which has been set aside as protected native species habitat) is operated by the not-for-profit Zoological Society of San Diego. The Zoological Society, dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and their habitats, engages in conservation and research work around the globe and is responsible for maintaining accredited horticultural, animal, library, and photo collections. The Zoological Society also manages the 100-acre San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo’s Beckman Center for Conservation Research. The important conservation and science work of these entities is supported in part by the Foundation for the Zoological Society of San Diego.

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It is also extraordinary that the wild chicks and their parents have done so well. For more details, click here want to thank all of you who have made a donation to the Condor Emergency Fund already. Together, we will rebuild the Condor Sanctuary so that we can restore the California Condor to the wild and enable this wonderful species to be removed from the endangered species list.

Please help us tell the story by sharing this email with others or post to web and blog sites and encourage them to sign up for our email alerts and if they want to help they can make a donation also. Signing up for the email alert is free as you know and can be done by clicking here. It is a great way to get involved and hear directly from our biologists who are in turn directly working in the field. In the months ahead we will continue to tell the story as we rebuild the Condor Sanctuary.

Sincerely,

Kelly Sorenson
Executive Director

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Tatoosh, Ursa and Wiley are slated for a March 15 release at the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona. Meriwether will be released at a later date.

Last year was a record year for Oregon Zoo condors: An unprecedented seven eggs were laid, including two by condor pairs who had never produced eggs before. Unfortunately, an abundance of eggs doesn’t guarantee an abundance of chicks; three eggs were infertile and a fourth proved to be unviable partway through incubation. The low fertility was likely due to the number of young females in the program. California condors don’t reach sexual maturity until about 5 to 7 years of age.

The condor recovery goal is to establish a captive population of 150 birds and two separate wild populations of condors, one in California and the other in Arizona. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Condor Recovery Program coordinate and implement the recovery program and provide oversight of all program partners.

The Oregon Zoo’s condor recovery efforts take place at the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, located in rural Clackamas County on
Metro-owned open space. The remoteness of the facility minimizes the exposure of young condors to people, increasing the chances for captive-hatched birds to survive and breed in the wild.

The Jonsson Center is currently home to 19 adult condors. The 7 eggs last season made a total of 15 since the center was established, and 10 chicks have hatched.

In 2001, the Oregon Zoo became the third zoo in the nation to join the California Condor Recovery Program. California condor captive-breeding programs are also operated at San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, the Los Angeles Zoo and the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey. The Oregon Zoo was the recipient of the Wildlife Society’s Conservation Award for “creating the nation’s fourth California condor breeding facility” in April 2005.

Condors, the largest land birds in North America, have wingspans of up to 10 feet and weigh 18 to 30 pounds. They are highly intelligent and inquisitive, often engaging in play. Their range extended across much of North America during the Pleistocene Era, which ended about 10,000 years ago. By 1940, that range had been reduced to the coastal mountains of Southern California, and in 1967 condors were added to the first federal list of endangered species. In 1987, the 17 condors remaining in the wild were brought into captivity and a captive-breeding program was developed.

For more information about the Oregon Zoo’s California condors, visit www.oregonzoo.org/Condors/index.htm.

The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission to inspire the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Washington pygmy rabbits, Oregon silverspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Kincaid’s lupine. Other projects include studies on black rhinos, Asian elephants, polar bears and bats.

The zoo opens at 9 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Zoo visitors are encouraged to ride MAX or take TriMet bus No. 63 to the Oregon Zoo. Visitors who take the bus or MAX receive $1 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238 RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.

General admission is $9.75 (12-64), seniors $8.25 (65+), children $6.75 (3-11), and infants 2 and under are free; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $1 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by
calling 503-226-1561.

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