6 More Zoo-Bred Condors to Be Released in the Wild

Six more captive-bred California condors will be released in rugged backcountry 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles in December, bringing the endangered bird’s population in the wild to eight, officials said Friday.

As a first step, biologists will transfer four females and two males hatched in the Los Angeles Zoo to a man-made cave with a netted outdoor enclosure in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in northern Ventura County on Oct. 21, said Robert Mesta, Condor Recovery Team coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The scientists will closely monitor the young vultures for several weeks before their release while they become accustomed to the new environment, Mesta said.

“We’re really encouraged because we thought we would have only four birds to release,” he said.

Twelve chicks were hatched in the zoo’s condor recovery program this spring. By the October transfer date, half of them will be at least 6 months old--the optimum age for introduction to the wild, Mesta said.

If the six seem to be adapting well, the net will be raised and the birds will be freed the first week in December, Mesta said. “We want to make sure that the youngest bird is ready to go,” he said.

The condors will join two other California condors and a pair of Andean condors released into the sanctuary in January. Xewe, a female California condor, and Chocuyens, a male, made biological history as the first of their species roaming the wild since 1987.

They have fared well since their release and spend most of their time in remote areas of the Los Padres National Forest, far from civilization, Mesta said.