Condor Found Dead at Refuge; Coyote Attack Suspected

A 1-year-old California condor released into the wild last month was found dead at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, in what biologists said appeared to be a coyote attack.

The male chick was one of four young captive-bred condors released in the wild this year as part of the government’s 23-year, $35-million effort to save the endangered birds from extinction.

Mike Stockton, a supervising wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the other three chicks -- two of which were released last week -- appeared to be doing fine.

The young condor that died had come from the Los Angeles Zoo and had been living at the refuge for about a month, feeding on fresh carcasses provided by members of the California Condor Recovery Program. The refuge is north of Fillmore.

But, Stockton said, sometime in the last week, the bird stopped feeding, got weaker and became more vulnerable to predators. He was killed the night of July 19.

“He was in a weak state at the time, and it seems a coyote came up and got him,” Stockton said.

A necropsy revealed puncture wounds, fractures and tissue damage -- injuries consistent with an attack by another animal.

The bird’s death is the latest in a string of condor fatalities over the last year.

In October, three condor chicks that were the first to hatch in the wild in 18 years died.

In February, an adult female condor brought from the wild into a captive-breeding program was shot and killed by a poacher in Kern County. Britton Cole Lewis of Tehachapi pleaded guilty in May to charges stemming from the shooting.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in a federal court in Fresno on Aug. 15.

As of July 1, there were 222 California condors in the United States, 81 of which were in the wild, Stockton said. Nearly half of the condors in the wild are in California, with 36 more in Arizona and five in Baja California.