California-Nevada Operations Manager Steve Thompson delivers a condor conservation message during an Earth Day celebration at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. (Photo: Marc Weitzel)

Returning California condors to the skies above Mexico and the United States was part of a Earth Day message delivered by California and Nevada Operations Manager Steve Thompson during a bi-national celebration of Earth Day April 20, 2007, at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Mexico.

Approximately 130 dignitaries, agency representatives, school students, media and others attended the event, including U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza;  Federal District Environment Secretary, Martha Delgado Peralta; Director of the Federal District's Zoological Parks and Wildlife Division, Fernando Gual Sill; and U.S. Embassy's Counselor for Environmental, Science, and Technology Affairs; David Wagner.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger did not attend the event, but sent a proclamation in support of Earth Day and bi-national conservation, and welcomed the Chapultepec Zoo as the newest partner in the California Condor Recovery Program.

The Chapultepec Zoo will receive its first pair of condors later this spring and join a select group of captive breeding partners that have helped the birds rebound from near extinction in the 1980s, when only 22 birds existed.  Today, largely through the efforts of captive breeding programs, more than 135 condors now fly freely above California, Arizona and Baja, Mexico.

During the Earth Day celebration, the zoo showed off its permanent condor display which is created with the help of materials donated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the San Diego Wild Animal Park, part of the San Diego Zoological Society.  The display is housed at the small visitor contact station near the Zoo's entrance. 

The Service will join condor recovery program partners from San Diego Zoological Society to transfer a pair of male condors to the Mexico City zoo in late May.  Female condors will follow once the zoo is prepared to begin its breeding efforts.