Panel Recommends Freeing Condors in Los Padres Forest
A scientific panel overseeing efforts to save the endangered California condor has decided that two young condors should be returned to the wild in Los Padres National Forest within the next several months.
The team’s recommendation will go to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is expected to concur.
Three recently hatched birds will be moved to an enclosed pen at the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in Los Padres National Forest in October or November to get accustomed to the wild. In December or January, two of the three condors will be selected for reintroduction and released along with two Andean condors.
The long-awaited reintroduction comes nearly a decade after captive breeding of the species began. The population had plummeted for a variety of reasons, including lead poisoning from bullet fragments in carrion the birds ate. To prevent losses from poisoning, condor managers plan to provide food indefinitely for the birds in the wild.
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