3 Zoo-Bred Condors Are Recaptured

After a little more than a year in the wild, three 2-year-old, zoo-bred condors were recaptured in Santa Barbara County because they were exhibiting an attraction to man-made structures that put them at great risk.

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists recaptured the condors, fearing they could teach bad habits to younger birds trained in a survival-training camp, according to the agency.

In recent years, biologists have taught condors survival skills at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The condors received mild shocks every time they tried to land on mock power poles erected in their pens. Handlers also rushed into cages to scare off the birds in an attempt to make them flee from humans.

Four condors have died over the past three years from contacts with power lines.

The three condors were released in the wild in December, 1993, before the training-survival program began.

The condors, which were taken to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, were captured March 1 at Lion Canyon in the Los Padres National Forest.

They will be incorporated into the captive-breeding program at the animal park.

Younger condors need to be trained in a zoo because there is no mature adult in the wild to show them survival skills.