Condor hatching season wrapped up last month at the Oregon Zoo’s Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, and specialists there say this year’s recovery effort “goes to 11.”
Nine fuzzy California condor chicks are squawking in their nests — and two more eggs laid at the center have hatched under adoptive condor parents at The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. Conservationists say the 11 chicks represent a big step forward in the recovery of this critically endangered species.
“With so few California condors left in the world, each new arrival is vitally important,” said Kelli Walker, the zoo’s senior condor keeper. “These young birds are already stretching their wings and preparing to be free-flying wild condors.”
The chicks will stay with their parents — adoptive or otherwise — for at least eight months before moving to pre-release pens for about a year. Eventually, they will travel to a wild release site to join free-flying condors in California and Arizona.
The California condor was one of the original animals included on the 1973 Endangered Species Act and is classified as critically endangered. In 1982, only 22 individuals remained in the wild and by 1987, the last condors were brought into human care in an attempt to save the species from extinction. Thanks to recovery programs like the Oregon Zoo’s, the world’s California condor population now totals around 560 birds, most of which are flying free.
The Oregon Zoo’s condor recovery efforts take place at the Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation, located in rural Clackamas County on Metro-owned open land. The remoteness of the facility minimizes the exposure of young condors to people, increasing the chances for captive-hatched birds to survive and breed in the wild.
Upgrades and new equipment at the Jonsson Center have been made possible through continued support from Oregon’s Senators Merkley and Wyden, the Avangrid Foundation and donations to the Oregon Zoo Foundation, which supports the zoo’s efforts in advancing animal well-being, species recovery work and conservation education.
More than 140 chicks have hatched at the Jonsson Center since 2003, and more than 100 Oregon Zoo-reared birds have gone out to field pens for release. Several eggs laid by Oregon Zoo condors have been placed in wild nests to hatch.
Source: Oregon Zoo