12 Condors to Be Moved to Idaho Center

Twelve California condors from captive breeding programs in Los Angeles and San Diego will be moved next week to a new facility in Idaho, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced Friday.

The move will mark the first time in the history of the $15-million condor recovery program that the endangered birds, which once roamed across North America, will be bred outside California, said Robert Mesta, who coordinates the Condor Recovery Program based in Ventura.

The two existing breeding facilities at the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos are at capacity with 71 birds between them, officials said.

Those two locations have produced the five California condors that are located in Ventura County, as well as the five that will be transferred to a remote portion of Santa Barbara County in November for eventual release into the wild.

Transferring the birds from the two Southern California zoos to the newly constructed facility at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Ida., will help expand the limited gene pool and help ensure the survival of the species into the next century, Mesta said.

“There will be a time in the near future when we will have birds in captivity eligible for release into the wild in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties,” Mesta said. “But their family lines will be already represented out there.

“This new facility helps protect the genetic diversity of the population by getting them into another facility and allowing us to release them in another part of the country.”

Offspring produced at the new facility could be brought back to Ventura or Santa Barbara counties, Mesta said. But it is more likely that those animals will be released in Arizona and New Mexico. Condors were abundant in the Grand Canyon area until about 10,000 years ago, he said.

The birds to be transferred, six males and six females ranging in age from 2 to 10 years, were chosen for their genetic makeup to become six breeding pairs to start the new facility in Boise.

The first pair is not expected to produce young before 1995 or 1996, said Jeff Cilek, program executive at the Peregrine Fund, which operates the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise.

Cilek said the the condors, for which the center built a separate $800,000 facility, will add to the already 200 endangered birds housed and bred at the center.

“The California condor is like humans; it survived the Ice Age,” Cilek said. “They’ve had some rough times and are now making a comeback. We are pleased to help accomplish that comeback.”

The California condor, which once numbered in the thousands and roamed from Canada to Baja California, was on the brink of extinction in 1982 and 1983 when its population hit an all-time low of 22 or 23 birds.

Scientists decided a captive breeding program was the only way to save the species and captured the last wild bird in 1987.