Idaho Facility to Be Added Next Year to California Condor Breeding Program
The endangered California condor will be bred and raised next year in Idaho, in addition to Los Angeles and San Diego, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said Friday.
There are now 63 of the giant vultures alive. One is roaming the hills and skies of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary north of Fillmore, six more are being held at a compound there awaiting release next month, and the remaining birds are being raised in the captive breeding programs at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo.
“We now know how to breed them in captivity, and they were growing out of house and home in San Diego and Los Angeles,” said Marvin L. Plenert, Fish & Wildlife Service regional director, who is based in Portland, Ore.
The two captive breeding programs in California are expected to reach capacity sometime next year.
The third program will be run by the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Ida. The Peregrine Fund is a private organization that is now under contract with the Fish & Wildlife Service to help replenish the numbers of the endangered peregrine falcon.
Ten breeding pairs of condors will be transferred to the Boise location once pens and other facilities are built sometime next year, Plenert said.
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