Freed Condors Find Their Wings on 2nd Day, Glide Above Cliffs

Aday after two California condors were released in the rugged wilderness of Ventura County, the pair took to the air Wednesday for the first time, gliding above a cliff top.

The male, Chocuyens, was the first to become airborne while his female companion, Xewe, remained on the ground just “goofing off,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. But later in the day, the female matched the performance of her companion, delighting biologists.

The endangered vultures are the first of hundreds that scientists and others hope to see freed in the years ahead as part of a decade-long, $20-million captive-breeding program. The two zoo-bred condors, along with two female Andean condor companions, were flown to the remote site last October but were prevented from flying away by a net that was kept in place until Tuesday.

There was mild disagreement Wednesday on whether a short airborne hop by Xewe on Tuesday could be classified as a flight. The bird glided about 90 feet.

But there was no doubt about Chocuyens’ inaugural flight Wednesday. It kept scientists on the edge of their front-row seats.

After strutting around the cliff top, Chocuyens--a Chumash Indian name meaning “valley of the moon”--unfurled his black-and-white wings to their full eight-foot span and soared 50 yards above the sandstone cliff.

Although the ride wasn’t much longer than the 40 yards that the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903, it was just as historic for the biologists--and as scary.

“I was extremely frightened that Chocuyens was going to go off the cliff,” field biologist David Clendenen told Fish and Wildlife headquarters by two-way radio. “We really were counting on Chocuyens landing back on the cliff before he went over.”

Xewe, a Chumash name that means “to cast a shadow,” stayed on the ground for most of the day. “She’s still piddling around back there, goofing off,” said Robert Mesta of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Later, however, she made two short flights, officials said.

Biologists huddled near the Arundell cliffs north of Fillmore in Los Padres National Forest maintained an around-the-clock watch, out of sight of the condors. They said they expected that Santa Ana wind conditions would keep the birds grounded for the most part.

“Until the winds change, I don’t believe we’re going to see any flights of any significance because the birds are afraid of those winds. They don’t provide any uplift,” Mesta said. “The birds know better than to go off the cliff.”

Meanwhile, one of the two Andean condors blown off the same ledge Tuesday by a gust of wind managed to “hop flap” to a ledge just below the birds’ cliff-top home and was pronounced out of immediate danger.

All four birds have been fitted with radio transmitters to allow scientists to track their movements as they venture beyond a man-made cave near the edge of the 150-foot cliff.

The birds will be supplied with food--the carcasses of stillborn calves--for an indefinite period, said Lloyd F. Kiff, leader of the condor recovery team.

“The birds will always be fed to some extent by us, but not exclusively. We like the idea of them eating this kind of food because it’s guaranteed clean,” he said. Having food available, he said, will keep the condors near the cave where they can be easily monitored by the scientists.

“They’ll stick very close to this area for the next month or two, no matter what. It’s not like they’re going to go zooming down to Camarillo or something like that,” Kiff said.

Condors were near extinction before the last one--the mother of Xewe--was captured in the wild in 1987. Most of the deaths were attributed to lead poisoning from feeding on the carcasses of animals shot with lead ammunition. Others were killed by hunters or by flying into high-tension power lines. In addition, development was shrinking their habitat.

When the last condor was captured, only 26 remained alive. During the 10 years of the captive-breeding program at the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, the population has increased to 52.