Untallied Condor--or 2--Reported in Kern County

One and perhaps two previously unknown or missing California condors have been sighted in northern Kern County.

The sighting of the rare and endangered vultures by an experienced condor observer on Jan. 22 has touched off an intensive search to confirm the report.

Only 26 condors--the largest birds in North America--were previously known to be alive. Twenty-one are in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, and only five were thought to be still in the wild.

If it can be verified, the discovery of one or two more wild condors could have a significant impact on the current controversy over plans by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to capture the remaining condors.

“I think it’s very significant. It changes the equation and the balance and a lot of what the government’s been saying. It means we’re not talking about a diminishing population necessarily,” National Audubon Society deputy counsel Hope Babcock said in a telephone interview from Washington.

The service’s proposal, which was struck down Monday by a federal judge in Washington, was based in large part on the assumption that the wild condor population was declining at a staggering and species-threatening rate. The Audubon Society, which had filed the court challenge, argued that some condors should remain in the wild.

At Least One Seen

There is little doubt that at least one of the vultures spotted on Jan. 22 was previously unknown, said Jesse Grantham, a research biologist with the Condor Research Center in Ventura. He explained that each of the five known wild condors has been tagged with a miniature radio transmitter. One of the five transmitters, however, is not working.

“On that day we knew where four of the five wild birds were. We had them pinned down, so the two birds that were seen elsewhere up in the northern end of Kern County could have either been the one that doesn’t have a transmitter working and another bird, or two different birds that we don’t know about,” Grantham said.

The sighting was made about 4:15 in the afternoon by John Roser about 20 miles northeast of Bakersfield on the Glennville-Bakersfield road. At the time, the nearest known condor was 40 to 50 miles to the south, based on radio telemetry.

Perched in Tree

Roser, a field observer for the research center in 1984, could not be reached for comment, but he gave the center a signed affidavit saying that as he and three others rounded a curve on their way to Bakersfield, he spotted a condor perched in an oak tree 100 yards from the roadside. They stopped the car and Roser went through a fence and up a hill to get a closer look.

As he approached to within 75 yards, the bird flew to a nearby pine tree, flushing out a second condor.

“As the first bird flew, John unmistakably saw the pure white wing lining which, in addition to its size and shape, identified the bird as a condor. . . . The second bird left the tree when the first bird landed. It was also identified as a condor, based on its size and white wing lining,” Grantham said. Condors have a wing span of up to 10 feet.

Roser, who observed the first bird for 10 minutes, reported that the condor had to flap its wings continuously because there was no breeze or thermal updrafts that would have enabled the bird to soar. For that reason, Roser was unable to determine whether either of the birds had a radio transmitter. The transmitters, which weigh 60 to 70 grams, are attached to the midsection of a wing.

Hard to Spot Tag

Unless an observer is directly beneath the bird, it is difficult to spot a white tag with black numbers that indicates the radio transmitter, Grantham said.

Roser’s observation has led an intense effort by the research center to find the two birds. Grantham said six to eight staff members have fanned out across the foothills and San Joaquin Valley for signs of the two birds, but rain, fog and snow have hampered their efforts.

It is possible that the birds are among the six whose disappearance last winter prompted a reassessment of a long-standing policy of leaving some of the vultures in the wild while others are brought to zoos for breeding and later released back into their natural habitat.

Of the six that disappeared a year ago, the carcass of only one was found, and until the latest discovery, the other five were believed to have died.

“We have everybody up there looking now. But the trail’s a little cold,” Grantham said. But when asked if there was any doubt as to Roser’s testimony and credibility, he said, “There’s no question.”