Zoos Get Funds for Condors

The San Diego and Los Angeles zoos’ efforts to revive the endangered California condor got a boost Monday when Gov. George Deukmejian signed legislation giving each zoo $250,000 to expand its condor breeding programs.

The bill, an emergency measure written by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea

(D-San Diego), requires that the money be spent to build flight cages for the birds, which once roamed much of Western North America but now exist only in captivity.

Because the zoos hope to release some of the birds to the wild in 1990 in an unusual effort to nurse the population back to a stable level, the condors must be raised with as little human contact as possible.

The San Diego Wild Animal Park now has 14 birds in six flight cages, while the Los Angeles Zoo has 13 birds in six cages. The cages, dubbed “condorminiums” by zoo officials, are about 40 feet wide, 80 to 100 feet long and 25 to 30 feet tall.

Each zoo is expecting another bird to hatch soon. The zoos are also going to be raising Andean condors, which will be released first to test the condors’ ability to survive in a 5,000-acre wildlife refuge in Southern Kern County.

Tom Hanscom, spokesman for the Wild Animal Park, said the zoos are in “desperate need” of new housing for the birds.

“Right now we can get away with six enclosures because a number of the birds are immature,” Hanscom said. “But many of these birds will be reaching maturity in the next couple of years, and they’re going to have to be paired off. If we want Condor A to mate with Condor B, we’re going to have to take Condor C out of the picture.”