3 Condor Chicks Hatch in Los Padres National Forest

Three California condor chicks have hatched in Ventura County’s backcountry in the past month, officials announced Monday.

The first hatched April 9 in Los Padres National Forest north of Fillmore, the second on April 11 and the third on Thursday, all in the same general area, said Denise Stockton, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The three chicks came from separate parents.

One of the male parents was AC9, the last condor brought in from the wild to participate in the federal government’s California condor captive breeding program.

AC9 was captured on Easter Sunday 1987 and was released back into the wild in May 2002. His first chick since being released was hatched on Easter Sunday of this year.

“To have an original wild condor reproducing again in the wild after 17 years is very gratifying,” said Steve Thompson, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s California-Nevada Operations Office. “When this same bird was captured in 1987 and no California condors soared free, we faced an uncertain future.”

There are 97 condors, the largest bird in North America, now living in the wild in California, Arizona and Baja Mexico. An additional 124 birds are in captivity in the western U.S.