After spending six months in its gritty nest cave on a sheer sandstone cliff, a California condor chick takes its first flight over Los Padres National Forest. Its first attempt at flying is a short one, uncertain of the wide-open expanse of forest and scrubby chaparral for which this wilderness is known.
The new fledgling isn’t alone. Six other condor chicks successfully left their nests this past fall, making 2008 the most successful breeding season to date for the California Condor Recovery Program. With these seven new condors and two other chicks in Arizona and Baja successfully leaving their nests, the wild condor population now outnumbers those in captive breeding for the first time since reintroduction of the endangered birds began in 1992.
“This is another big step toward the recovery of the species,” said Mike Woodbridge, public relations officer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Condor Recovery Program. “Seven chicks in California are more than we’ve had in a season. The chicks are doing well, but we still have a long way to go.”
The recovery plan calls for three distinct populations, each with at least 150 birds and 15 breeding pairs in California and Arizona. After the 2008 breeding season, the recovery program has reached an important milestone. There are now 167 condors flying free in the wild, with 160 in the captive breeding program at the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo.
“This is an exciting time for the California condor recovery effort,” said Marc Weitzel, project leader for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Ventura County.
“We’ve come a long way since the recovery program began, and we still have a ways to go. We are making tremendous progress, with more condors in the wild than there have been in approximately 50 years.”
Nevertheless, condors still face threats from collisions with power lines, accidental and intentional shootings and especially lead poisoning. Even though a bill — proposed by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara — to remove lead ammunition from the condor’s historic range was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a year ago and was implemented in July, the threat remains.
Condors are checked for lead levels after hunting season concludes in late fall. Ingestion of lead has been the main culprit for condors, which doesn’t allow food stored in their crop (the pouch in their neck) to digest properly. According to Woodbridge, several recently tested condors were found to have high levels of lead in their blood.
“We suspect lead was still being used because lead levels were still substantial within the condors tested,” Woodbridge said.
“As people learn more about the law, it will become less and less of a problem for the condors.”
Another concern for North America’s largest flying land bird is encouraging the scavenging raptors to forage on their own do they don’t become dependent on food left out for them. Condors do not kill their food; they locate carcasses while soaring for hours on thermal updrafts, reaching speeds of up to 55 mph and altitudes of 15,000 feet. Condors can cover 100 to 150 miles a day with their impressive nine-foot-plus wingspans.
Since reintroduction began 17 years ago, field biologists have placed stillborn calves at feeding stations to encourage foraging behavior for the new wave of condors. Over time, those feeding stations have included remote locales like Lion Canyon on the Sierra Madre Ridge, the Wind Wolves Preserve and national wildlife refuges at Bitter Creek and Hopper Mountain. The Day Fire in 2006 and the Zaca Fire in 2007 have also helped, burning old-growth chaparral in regions of Los Padres National Forest that had not burned in 100 years. With their incredible vision, condors will be able to locate food easier in the burn areas.
“We’re still leaving them supplemental feedings at various locations throughout their range,” Woodbridge continued. “We’re also encouraging them to feed on their own.”
Local freelance writer Chuck Graham is editor of Deep magazine.