The Santa Barbara Zoo welcomed two new California condors last month, one male and one female, both under 2 years old, who will be joining the zoo’s other condors in their exhibit later this month. 

The new condors are from Los Angeles and are the 19th and 20th condors to come to the zoo since 2009. 

The condors come to the Santa Barbara Zoo as part of the California Condor Recovery Program. It is a conservation approach that aims to not only breed more condors but also make them more resilient to the environment, according to Estelle Sandhaus, the zoo’s director of Conservation & Science. 

The California condor was the first species to be listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1967. By 1987, only 22 condors were in the wild; today there are 347. 

“The condors are rightly seen as a success story of a species that was brought back from the brink,” Sandhaus told Noozhawk. “This is a species that was literally extinct in the wild for a number of years, but at the same time, it’s still on the precipice that the numbers are still not there.”

As a partner in the condor recovery program, the Santa Barbara Zoo helps track southern California condors that are reintroduced into the wild.

“All of the flocks are still very heavily managed hands-on,” Sandhaus said. “We’re not yet at a point where the population is self-sustaining.”

Part of this is due to the fact that condors are slow to mature and spend more time with their parents than other species do.

A big issue in the mortality of these birds is that many of them die through lead poisoning, caused by ingestion of spent lead ammunition, Sandhaus said. 

While the condor species still has a ways to go until the population is self sustaining, their reintroduction to the wild has been successful.

“The condors are doing the things in the wild that they need to be doing,” Sandhaus said. “They’re behaving like condors, they’re nesting even in historic cavities that birds in the ’80s were using, they’re roosting and in some of the same trees, and they’re foraging across the same lands.”

Rachel Ritchason, the zoo’s director of animal care, helps manage a database that tracks every condor that has ever existed since the species was just 22 condors. The database also tracks deaths, if they are taken to a zoo for treatment after lead poisoning, and what birds are breeding. 

Gorillas Go ‘Off Habitat’ During Exhibit Work

The new condors aren’t the only thing changing at the zoo. Monday marked the start of improvements for the gorilla habitat, taking the gorillas temporarily off habitat for the next eight to 10 weeks.

The pool will be re-poured with new concrete and get new plumbing. Large trees will be added alongside other climbing structures, and new rockwork will be installed throughout the habitat. 

While gorillas are behind the scenes, they are mostly kept separate from each other and other animals to prevent fighting, but the gorillas will have an opportunity to see each other if they so choose.

“It’s our goal just to provide them with as many choices and as many opportunities to control their environment as we can possibly get them,” Ritchason told Noozhawk. “We want them to have the choice if it’s time to eat, or if it’s time to rest, or if they want to interact in a training session with their keeper.”

Zookeepers will be providing enrichment opportunities for the gorillas to participate in that will include introducing them to new lights, sounds, smells and objects.

While the gorilla habitat work is underway, visitors can instead go see the lions and their newly remodeled habitat. The lion exhibit was closed last fall for improvements but reopened in November, Ritchason said.