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.

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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.

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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.

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More than a dozen eggs have been laid by wild California condors and condors at the breeding centers. More eggs are expected this season.

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The arrival of two male California condors at the Chapultepec Zoo is only the beginning of a new partnership between the Mexico City zoo and the California Condor Recovery Program. Team members from the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Dirección General de Zoológicos y Vida Silvestre, Instituto Nacional de Ecología and the Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente  joined officials at the Chapultepec Zoo on Jan. 16, 2008 to give the condors their annual veterinary exam.

This informative booklet gives an overview of the natural history of California condors and discusses the recovery efforts of the program in Baja California, Mexico. It is written in English and Spanish.

Condors Come Home to Baja (download PDF to print. This is a large file and may take several minutes to complete.)

Condors with lead poisoning were returned from the Baja California release site to the Harter Veterinary Medical Center at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park for treatment.

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Two condors were transported to the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City from the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park.

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