Condor Chick Is Stained With Oil

The first California condor brooded and hatched in the wild in 18 years was stained with oil this week, raising concerns about the chick’s long-term health and the effect on the ambitious, $35-million program to reintroduce the huge black birds into the wilderness.

Biologists observing the chick in Los Padres National Forest near Fillmore say the father apparently stuck its own head in a puddle of crude oil, then flew back to the nest where the oil got on the chick’s white, downy feathers.

Reports of the oily bird swirled as far as Washington on Friday, where U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton was said to have the situation “on her radar screen.”

Norton, former associate solicitor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the mid-1980s, defended the agency in court over its decision to capture all the wild condors and bring them into a captive breeding program.

Norton “has a major personal and professional stake in this,” said Hugh Vickery, spokesman for the Interior Department. “We hope the chick survives and continues to do well. If it dies, we would be unhappy but that wouldn’t be the end of the program.”

Pat Fouk, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the chick “did get a little oil on it, but it wasn’t drenched in oil. We don’t consider this a setback, but it’s definitely a concern. If we felt there was a danger, we would consider some sort of an intervention. A lot is riding on this chick.”

Wildlife officials say the amount of oil is too small to cause any serious problems, but they worry the bird may have ingested oil or that the father may transfer more of it to the 2-week-old chick.

Excess oil on a bird’s feathers reduces its ability to regulate body heat, often causing death by hypothermia, biologists said. It can also kill a bird after being absorbed through the skin.

The adult condor apparently was near a newly drilled oil well when he put his head into a puddle of what it probably thought was water, said Bruce Palmer coordinator for the California Condor Recovery Program.

“He ended up getting his head and feathers oiled,” Palmer said. “Condors are very fastidious and he rubbed his head on the grass, but there is likely still oil on his wing.”

If the chick shows any signs of being in trouble, biologists will rappel down a sandstone cliff to remove the bird from the small cave deep in the forest where it’s nesting with its parents.

“If there was a serious danger, I would be the quickest to go in there,” said Mike Wallace of the San Diego Zoo, who is leader for the California Condor Recovery Team. “This is one of the blips in the life of a condor. If it had oil on its feathers, it could ingest those by preening itself, but the amount would be too small to cause any problems.”

But those involved in the condor program say there is much at stake in the continued survival of the chick and the costly efforts to reintroduce North America’s largest bird into nature.

“To say a lot is riding on this is an understatement,” Palmer said. “This is the first real example of the ramifications of the reintroduction program. This [chick’s birth] is a vindication of the program.”

The condor captive breeding program began in 1985. With extinction imminent, condors were taken from the wild, bred in captivity and, starting in 1992, released again.

There are now 63 condors living in the wild in California and Arizona, 18 in field pens awaiting release and 104 more in captivity. Most of the wild birds, which can have 9-foot wingspans and weigh about 20 pounds, live in sanctuaries in Big Sur, Los Padres forest and Grand Canyon National Park.

Condors have had problems readjusting to nature. Some have been electrocuted on power lines and others have died after swallowing bullets while feeding on animal carcasses.

In the condor refuge near Fillmore, there are dozens of oil wells where the birds perch and occasionally poke around puddles of oil.

Palmer dismisses those who say the bird lacks the intelligence to flourish in the wild.

“Hogwash. They are probably too smart for their own good,” he said. “It brings them into harm’s way.”

Aside from the oil, the chick is thriving. Its parents have been gentle, taking turns feeding and brooding it, say biologists who have spent recent days observing the pair from a nearby perch.

The condor chick is growing, flapping its stubby wings and is becoming less and less vulnerable to attacks from ravens and crows.

Two other nests with eggs have been spotted nearby, with another condor chick expected to hatch early next month.

“I think the bird will be fine,” said Michael Barth, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service at the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge near Fillmore that supervises condor recovery efforts in Southern California.

“It is serious and it threw us a little scare, but I think everything will be OK,” he added.