Four recently released California Condors are learning to feed
and fly, with help from six older birds set free last year, and are
adjusting to life in the wild at Pinnacles National Park, an expert
said Thursday.
Paicines – Four recently released California Condors are learning to feed and fly, with help from six older birds set free last year, and are adjusting to life in the wild at Pinnacles National Park, an expert said Thursday.
In addition to improving their flight skills, the four birds have been roosting and feeding with the older birds, which park biologist Jim Petterson said was good sign that the birds are adapting well.
Although the birds are adapting, they face many threats in the wild, most notably lead poisoning.
Pinnacles National Park released four of the majestic birds into the wild last week. The scheduled release was the third in the park’s continuing efforts to re-introduce the once nearly extinct bird to the wild.
So far park biologists have released 10 condors, six last year and four this year. Each bird is tagged with a number. Two of the 10 also carry new GPS locators so biologists can study their movements.
The birds are bred and hatched in special facilities and then transferred to the park, where they are reared by a mature adult mentor. The adult mentor, named Hoinewut, teaches the juvenile birds skills they will need to live outside the flight pen.
Executive Director of Ventana Wilderness Society Kelly Sorenson, who played a key role in establishing Pinnacles as a condor release site, has been tracking the progress of the three birds released Sept. 17 and the fourth released the following Friday.
The first few weeks after release are critical for the young birds, Sorenson said.
“That’s when they’re first learning how to fly,” he said. “The flight pen (from which they are released) is too small, so they don’t begin to learn how to fly until they are in the wild.”
In addition to learning to fly, the birds must also develop safe roosting and feeding habits.
For example, condor No. 330 ended up roosting on the ground near the flight pen on Sunday night, the day after being released. Roosting on the ground where they are easy prey for coyotes and other predators is one of the behaviors biologists and park rangers try to discourage.
“In that situation we actually chase after them and attempt to get them up into the trees,” Sorenson said. “If that fails, we would have to trap them overnight.”
Sorenson believes the recently released birds are doing well, but he knows that they will continue to face many challenges. Once the birds establish healthy feeding and roosting habits, they can then can begin to reproduce, which is the ultimate goal.
The biggest threat is lead poisoning. Feeding on animals shot by hunters can be fatal because condors are extremely susceptible to lead found in carcasses, Sorenson said.
Although the park supplies the condors with clean, lead-free food, Sorenson said the birds will not be able to establish a truly self-sustaining population until they learn to feed on their own.
The Ventana Wilderness Society and the Pinnacles National Park are working with several regional organizations to encourage hunters to use copper, instead of lead, bullets when hunting near condor habitats. In Arizona, which is home to several condor release sites, government officials are offering hunters coupons that they can use to get free copper ammunition.
“California is kind of behind in terms of these efforts and that’s too bad,” he said. “It’s really holding up our efforts to establish self-sustaining populations.”
