Paicines
– Two condors took their first steps toward freedom at the
Pinnacles National Monument.
Paicines – Two condors took their first steps toward freedom at the Pinnacles National Monument.
Up to three condors were scheduled to be released Saturday, but did not leave the flight pen.
However, park officials tried again, and released the birds Tuesday morning and afternoon, said Carl Brenner, the park’s supervisor of interpretation and education.
The condors, one male and one female, were born and raised at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. Both of the birds are a year old.
Park officials will monitor the birds to make sure the Pinnacles National Monument flock, which now contains 15 birds, accepts the newly released condors, Brenner said.
Once the birds have been accepted, biologists will begin working to release three more condors in captivity at the park, Brenner said.
After the condor population fell to just 22 in the 1980s, federal wildlife biologists began capturing the birds in an effort to rehabilitate the endangered scavenger’s numbers. In 1987, breeding programs were started in California, Oregon, Arizona and Idaho.
Pinnacles National Monument became a condor reintroduction site in 2003 in a collaboration between the Pinnacles Partnership, the Ventana Wildlife Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Society, said Brenner.
Nationwide, there are 280 condors, of which 130 now live in the wild.
More than 500 people attended Saturday’s event, shattering the first public release’s record of about 300 visitors, park officials said.
