Panel Wants to Capture All Condors

In a decision that has heightened the controversy over the fate of the California condor, the state Fish and Game Commission has voted 5 to 0 to recommend that all known remaining wild condors be captured and placed in protective custody in the Los Angeles and San Diego zoos and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

The commission’s action, taken Thursday in Sacramento, is in conflict with a plan advanced last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has proposed capturing three adult condors for mating purposes (a fourth adult is already in captivity) and releasing three young captive birds into the wild.

Both state and federal officials said Friday that an attempt will be made this summer to reach a compromise on the conflicting rescue plans. But spokesmen for each side said that no matter what the decision, there are risks in trying to save the endangered birds.

Indeed, the population of wild condors is believed to be declining drastically. There were 15 birds counted as late as last October, but since then five condors have disappeared and a sixth has been found dead. There are another 17 birds in the zoos.

While some still hold out hope that the five missing birds will reappear, each passing day brings new gloom and many of those concerned now believe that there are only nine birds left in the wild.

“I believe this is a crisis situation for the species. I think we’re gambling with the future of the survival of the species,” state Fish and Game Commissioner Brian J. Kahn warned in April in calling for the capture of all remaining wild condors.

Jan Riffe, chief of wildlife research for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said during a Palm Springs hearing last month that the apparent 40% mortality rate since last October indicates that the condor could be functionally extinct in the next five years.

But Riffe proposed capturing only three adult birds--a mating pair plus one female to be placed with a male condor already in the Los Angeles Zoo. Under that proposal, offspring from those birds would eventually be released to the wild. To help maintain the habitat, the Riffe proposal also calls for three young birds now in captivity to be released at the time the adults are brought in.

Whatever the compromise the two sides eventually agree on, those closely associated with the effort to save the condor agreed Friday that there is no certainty that any strategy will work.

If some birds are left in the wild, they may be doomed to the same fate that apparently has claimed the five missing birds, and thus the wild species may vanish entirely.

Yet, the Fish and Wildlife Service has warned that unless there are condors in the wild, existing pressures to develop oil and gas fields as well as residential and commercial projects may be overwhelming and much of the condor habitat could be lost forever.

Others have said that condors held in captivity may not be able to adjust to life in the wild without a native condor population to “guide” them in the ways of survival.

‘A Major Move’

“This will be a major move if we bring in all the birds,” said Jesse Grantham, a staff biologist with the National Audubon Society who is involved in the Ventura-based Condor Research Center. “It’s only been done once before for a sparrow in Florida. When you bring all the birds in you have essentially brought to the end the culture of a species which has taken thousands of years to develop. You’ve just cut that culture off.”

Sharing that concern is Nancy Spear of Hermosa Beach, who has followed developments closely and strongly opposes capturing all the wild condors.

“I really feel that what’s going on now is a major disaster,” she said. “It’s destroying the wild condor in order to save it. I believe that if they are all brought in they’re going to lose public support for saving the habitat when there’s no longer a wild flock in it.”

State and federal wildlife program managers are aware of the dilemma they face.

‘Sound Possibilities’

“There are any number of biologically sound possibilities or directions that you could take,” said Kent Smith, coordinator for the the state Fish and Game Department’s endangered birds and mammals program. “But the bottom line is we haven’t been involved in this program long enough. We don’t know enough to know if any one of these is going to be the right one. With all the knowledge and all the experts, it’s still a best guess and you hope to hell that you are right.”

David Harlow, assistant condor project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, added: “When you’re dealing with endangered species, particularly when you have a population size as small as the condor, certainly some species have gone extinct from some moves like this and others have recovered. It will be quite a while before we know which way it will go.”