Today, six endangered California condors arrived at Tijuana’s General Abelardo L. Rodriguez airport, marking the first time a member of their species has been documented in Mexico since the late 1930s. The newly arrived condors did not fly to Tijuana on their own, but were instead transported by plane. The condors are part of a recovery program for the species that is being implemented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) in cooperation with the Zoological Society of San Diego, the Los Angeles Zoo, the California Department of Fish and Game, and numerous Mexican partners, including the Instituto Nacional de Ecología, the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, and the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada.
Of the six, five are juveniles and are scheduled to be released this fall in the mountains of Baja California, Mexico, after a period of several weeks in an acclimation pen. The sixth condor is an adult female that is accompanying the juveniles as a "mentor" bird. She will return to the Los Angeles Zoo following the release. All six were reared at the Los Angeles Zoo and were hatched at the zoo and the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho.
"I was an associate solicitor at the Interior Department over a decade and a half ago when we decided to take the last California condors into captivity," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton. "Back then there were those who disagreed with our decision, but the approach of breeding them in captivity and reintroducing them to the wild has succeeded. I am proud today to be able to share these magnificent birds with our neighbors in Mexico."
"Day after day we hear about species that are endangered or become extinct. Very few times do we receive news of a recuperation and conservation effort," said Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, President of Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Ecología. "This is why this day gives us reason to rejoice – 60 years have passed without condors in Mexico, and today we will see these birds open their wings where their ancestors once did."
"This is a very important step for the recovery program," said Steve Thompson, manager of the Service’s California-Nevada Operations Office. "This is a truly binational endangered species program. With the combined efforts of partners in the U.S. and Mexico we may have the chance of seeing California condors flying the mountains from Baja into California sometime in the not too distant future."
It is expected that the condors re-introduced to Mexico may one-day unite with condors in California to form one population. The goal of the California Condor Recovery Program is to establish two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs. There are 76 condors now living in the wild in California and Arizona, 16 in field pens ready for release, and 116 in captivity at the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho.
Before the condors are released, Mexican biologists will visit California to learn about the latest condor-care and monitoring techniques from the Service, the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. In addition, Service biologist and zoo personnel will be available to assist following the release in September.
"In order to succeed in the wild, condors must learn appropriate behavior. By virtually eliminating human contact and providing adult mentor birds as role models, we have refined our rearing techniques for chicks not raised by their parents. This has produced birds that are confident interacting with other condors yet wary of humans and human activities," said Susie Kasielke, Curator of Birds at the Los Angeles Zoo. "We are pleased to be part of this history-making, international effort."
The release area is located in the Sierra de San Pedro Martir National Park in northern Baja. The release project will include an outreach program that will work with local communities and ranches to educate and inform them about condor re-introduction efforts.
Mike Wallace, wildlife specialist with the Zoological Society of San Diego, is leading the field release program in Baja. He is working on the ground with Mexican biologists and has designed and constructed the release pen. He has been instrumental in planning California condor reintroduction efforts in Baja. "The Sierra San Pedro de Martir is a magnificent high altitude range covered in old growth pine and fir for roosts, and with extensive cliffs with caves for nesting," said Wallace. "With large populations of deer, bighorn and cattle, these birds should thrive there."
"The California Department of Fish and Game appreciates the participation of Mexico in the continuing effort to recover this species, which is a most unique part of the heritage of the Californias," said Robert C. Hight, Director of the California Department of Fish and Game. The Department is the principle State agency responsible for the conservation of the condor in California.
On April 11 of this year, another milestone in condor recovery was reached when, for the first time in 18 years, a condor egg laid in the wild actually hatched in the wild. This historic event was followed by the hatching of two other eggs in May. The eggs hatched out of nest caves located in the area of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary, Los Padres National Forest in the back country of California’s Ventura County. Biologists from Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex and the Zoological Society of San Diego are monitoring the chicks closely to ensure that they are properly fed and cared for. The chick’s parents were captive-reared at the Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, then released into the wild at the age of one.
The California Condor Recovery Program is built upon a foundation of private and public partnerships. The focus of the condor recovery effort is the release of captive reared condors to the wild to ultimately establish self-sustaining populations. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for coordinating the conservation of the California condor, working with the Los Padres National Forest, California Department of Fish and Game, and several private partners. Private organizations and institutions are not just interested observers, but are active and essential participants in the implementation of the recovery program, contributing personnel, expertise, institutional support, and funding. California condor captive breeding programs are operated at San Diego Wild Animal Park, Los Angeles Zoo, and The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey. Release programs in California are managed by Ventana Wilderness Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex; the Arizona release is managed by The Peregrine Fund; and the Baja release is managed by the Zoological Society of San Diego, the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada in Ensenada, Mexico, and the Instituto Nacional de Ecología.
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