Page 28 - ATD25Febr2016

A28

SCIENCEThursday 25 February 2016

California condors reach key survival milestone in the wild

BY KEITH RIDLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A cap-
tive breeding program that
at one time included every
living California condor has
passed a key milestone in
helping North America’s
largest bird return to the
wild.
For the first time in decades,
more condors hatched
and fledged in the wild last
year than adult wild con-
dors died, officials with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
said Monday.
Fourteen young condors
took flight compared with
12 that died. Officials say
it’s a small difference but
a big step since the last
22 wild condors were cap-
tured in the 1980s to start
the breeding program that
releases offspring into the
wild.

“That’s an indication that This undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a juvenile California condor, identified as No. 428, wear-
the program is succeed- ing a GPS transmitter while perched at the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge near Maricopa, Calif.
ing,” said Eric Davis, the
Wildlife Service’s coordina- Associated Press
tor for the California con-
dor program. “We hope wild condor nests last year. Boise being the top egg officials count in the wild weigh as much as 25
that wild birds start produc- Nineteen were in Califor- producer, with six eggs laid population. pounds and have wing-
ing wild chicks, and that is nia, three in the Arizona- this spring and nine more Other facilities breeding spans up to 10 feet. They
what is happening more Utah border area and five expected. California condors are the were among the first spe-
and more.” in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. “So far it’s going fantastic,” Oregon Zoo, Los Angeles cies to receive federal pro-
In 2011, California condors Grand Canyon National said Marti Jenkins, condor Zoo and San Diego Zoo Sa- tection under the Endan-
in the wild for the first time Park in Arizona has a con- propagation manager at fari Park. gered Species Act in 1973.
outnumbered condors in dor nest, officials said, as the facility. Officials say lead poison-
captivity since the start of do Zion National Park in She said two eggs laid at Davis said about 20 to 40 ing from eating bullet frag-
the breeding program. The Utah and Pinnacles Nation- the facility last year were condors, typically less than ments in animals killed with
wild population has since al Park in central California. placed in wild nests in Cali- 2 years old, are released lead bullets continues to
grown to 268 wild condors, The captive breeding pro- fornia where eggs were ei- into the wild each year. be a threat. Of the 12 wild
with 167 in captivity. gram continues with the ther infertile or damaged. They can live for about 60 condor deaths in 2015, two
Officials also counted 27 Peregrine Fund’s World The replacement eggs years. were attributed to lead
Center for Birds of Prey near produced fledglings that California condors can poisoning.q