Local News in Brief : Condor Courtships Blooming at Zoos

Biologists trying to save California condors from extinction say the big birds are courting in two zoos.

Fourteen California condors at the Los Angeles Zoo and 14 others at the San Diego Wild Animal Park in Escondido are the only remaining members of the endangered vulture species. Their 9 1/2-foot wingspans make them North America’s largest land birds.

Courtship started in early January among four pairs of condors in Escondido and two pairs in Los Angeles, and scientists hope they will produce enough chicks to allow some to be reintroduced to the wild in five to 10 years, said Joseph Dowhan, the federal agency’s condor recovery coordinator.

But in an experiment to practice for the eventual release of California condors, three Andean condors freed Dec. 17 are being pestered by tail-grabbing ravens and divebombing eagles, biologists said.

“They are pretty amusing,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Teresa Nichols said. “The condors handle it very passively. They give them (the ravens) a dirty look, turn their backs and then start eating again.”