CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN DIEGO : Some Condors May Be Freed by 1991

The nearly extinct California condors are breeding so well in captivity that scientists say some birds could be reintroduced into the wild as early as 1991. Several mating pairs among the last 32 surviving condors have produced enough offspring to speed up the species’ return to California skies, said Bill Toone, bird curator at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. “We have already met one criterion for release--we have three adult pairs breeding, two at the Wild Animal Park and one at the Los Angeles Zoo,” Toone said. A second criterion, requiring that a breeding pair must hatch “up to four to five chicks” before their progeny can be released, has almost been met, Toone said.