Santa Barbara Zoo Adds 4 Young Condors

After 30-day quarantine, birds will be turned loose in new Condor Country exhibit.

By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer | Published on 03.09.2009

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Four juvenile California condors like this one arrived at the Santa Barbara Zoo from a captive-breeding program in Boise, Idaho.
Four juvenile California condors like this one arrived at the Santa Barbara Zoo from a captive-breeding program in Boise, Idaho. (Oregon Zoo photo)

Four juvenile California condors are now calling the Santa Barbara Zoo home, or soon will be, after zoo staff moved them to Santa Barbara from the World Center for Birds of Prey captive breeding facility in Boise, Idaho.

The birds are currently undergoing a 30-day quarantine after their Friday arrival, but will be a part of the Condor Country exhibit in the California Trails complex, which opens April 22 at the zoo, 500 Niños Drive.

“It was emotionally moving to go to the World Center and see the condors,” zoo CEO Rich Block said in a statement. “They have18 breeding pairs and a ton of young birds — nearly 60 condors total — and we’re bringing four home.”

California condors were on the brink of extinction in 1984, when there were only 22 left. Today, there are 321 of the still-endangered birds, and more than half have been released into the wild.

With the exhibit, the Santa Barbara Zoo will be just one of three zoos in the world to display California condors, along with the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City.

Write to lcooper@noozhawk.com

 

 

 

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» DAVE PHILLIPS [posting from Moapa, NV] wrote on 03.10.09 @ 03:00 AM

SO, I’m confused about “the plan”.  Are these birds of the vulture family to be kept captive, for breeding or released as others have in past at the vicinity of New Cuyama? Tejon Ranch (Kern County) has become a breeding ground - although at least one condor was killed by a hunter with no sense of propriety nor common sense. NON-NEGOTIABLE BOTTOM LINE -= A ZO(!!!) is NO PLACE for a condor as an endangere3d specie. If so: This is simply madness once more, by some small group of apparently Nannie wannabes hell-bent on vapid attempts to control a small part of God’s universe for personal financila gain, self-aggrandizement or worse.  SHAME!!!!!

» Vic Cox wrote on 03.10.09 @ 07:58 AM

Note to headline writer: Condors are scavengers, members of the vulture family, not raptors (birds of prey). Sorry to mess with your alliteration, but I’m sure you’d prefer accuracy.

[Editor’s note: We stand corrected.]

 

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