Captured Condor Returned to Zoo

The first condor released into the wilds of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in Ventura County is now the latest to be captured for return to the Los Angeles Zoo after federal biologists successfully trapped 3-year-old Xewe on Thursday.

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists set out the carcass of a dead calf to lure the hungry vulture into a cave-like structure high on a cliff. They then put the condor into a kennel and returned her to the Los Angeles Zoo, where she will become part of the condor captive breeding program.

Hatched at the L. A. Zoo, Xewe (pronounced GAY-wee) was one of the first two condors to be reintroduced to the wild in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in early 1992.

Six more of the endangered animals were released the following year. But after a year of accidents that killed four of the birds, biologists moved the remaining four to a remote Santa Barbara County canyon. Five more young birds were released there last year.

But three of the four birds first released into the Sespe returned to the area and took up the same behavior--roosting on power poles and visiting populated areas--that killed the four birds earlier. Three of those birds were recaptured late last month.

Xewe also recently began returning to the Sespe. She was not foraging or eating on her own and was roosting on power poles.

Scientists feared that Xewe was endangering herself and could possibly attract younger condors in Santa Barbara County back to populated areas of Ventura County.

“Our big fear was that she would take these younger birds to the site,” said David Clendenen, a senior wildlife biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service. “This was for their well-being and hers.”