5 Condors Are Stars of Exhibit at Animal Park

You’ve heard about them, read about them and seen them on TV. Your federal tax money has helped rescue them.

Now, after nearly two decades of struggle to bring the fierce-looking California condor from the brink of extinction, you can see them in person.

Five of the vultures are housed in a six-story aviary and exhibit called Condor Ridge that opened over the Memorial Day weekend at Wild Animal Park, 30 miles north of downtown San Diego.

Park officials are betting there is a pent-up demand among nature lovers for an up-close glimpse of condors after years of stories about setbacks and successes in the effort to breed the bird in captivity and release its progeny into the wild.

In the heavily competitive world of tourist attractions, the condor is getting top billing this summer at the Wild Animal Park. That role has traditionally fallen to the big cats and other wild mammals of size, beauty and grace.

The condor may not have the conventional good looks of other creatures, but its keepers insist that it has other worthy characteristics.

“There’s a mystique about them,” said Michael Mace, the park’s curator of birds.

And with wingspans of up to 10 feet, “they look very majestic, a lot bigger than in pictures,” said Nancy Roberts of nearby San Marcos, visiting the exhibit last week with her two sons and one of their friends.

“Cool,” said Sam Roberts, 12, as he watched one of the condors strike a macho pose in the bright morning sun: red head perfectly still, black wings spread to their full span, no-nonsense eyes alert for something dead to eat.

To open the exhibit, the Wild Animal Park needed permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Federal law bans display of animals from endangered species without government approval.

The Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs both the Wild Animal Park and the San Diego Zoo, won federal approval by proving that the birds will be well treated.

“With these ‘glorious mega-fauna’ species, like the condor or humpback whale, the more chance the public has to have contact with them the better,” said John Brooks, education and information specialist with the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge in Ventura, one of the condor release areas.

Saving a species is not cheap. The government spends about $300,000 a year on its program to save the condor.

Even before it spent $3.5 million building Condor Ridge, the Wild Animal Park had spent more than $7 million during 18 years of participation in the condor program. The first bird arrived in 1982, the first hatchling in 1983.

If Condor Ridge helps the park recoup some of its investment by boosting attendance, park officials will not be displeased. The 1,800-acre park had 1.75 million visitors last year.

Once, condors were thick throughout the United States and Mexico. Lewis and Clark marveled at the big birds.

But by the middle of the last century, urbanization and other aspects of modern life had wiped out the condor in Mexico and reduced its number in this country to fewer than 30.

A breeding and release program was organized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Wild Animal Park, Los Angeles Zoo and other groups. Condors in the wild were rounded up to become breeding stock.

After years of captive breeding, 53 condors have been released in California and Arizona. Another 116 are in captivity: 31 at the Los Angeles Zoo, 38 at the Wild Animal Park, and 47 at the Peregrine Fund facility in Boise, Idaho.

The numbers are encouraging, but no one is yet declaring victory in saving the species. For one thing, there have yet to be any cases of reproduction in the wild by once-captive condors.

The Idaho facility allows visitors to view its condors, but the Los Angeles Zoo, with limited space, does not.

Attempting to find a condor in the wilds of Ventura is dicey; be prepared to hike, wait for hours and be ready with binoculars.

The Wild Animal Park, by comparison, is a sure thing, with five birds--named Away, Elewese, Towich, Mexwe and Wiloq--roosting amid three large boulders with a panoramic view of the park’s open areas populated with animals from Africa.

Set amid a grove of conifers, Condor Ridge also includes 12 types of North American reptiles, birds and mammals.

“They’re all flagship species,” said Mace, using a term for animals of particular ecological importance.