Santa Barbara Zoo Adds 4 Young Condors

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By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer

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

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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