Re-introduction of condors to California was a risky, intensive, expensive project that resulted in conservation success. This year’s condor nesting has already begun and a 14-year-long plan for a major new phase of condor re-introduction is moving towards fruition. Bringing the nation’s biggest birds to the biggest trees (coast redwoods) in California’s northwest corner will reunite prey-go-neesh with the 5,000-member Yurok tribe of the Klamath River region. “To us, he is the king of the sky,” says tribe chairman Thomas P. O’Rourke, Sr. "His absence is a hole in our hearts."
Conservation scientists work from hope as well as rigorous analysis and preparation. The Yurok’s 2003 bold proposal combines hope, detailed site suitability evaluation, and complex planning by multiple agencies and organizations. O’Rourke says this proposal was an easy decision for the largest tribe in California. “No world can function and stay in balance until it is whole.” The Yurok began by hiring biologists to evaluate the Klamath’s current status and ability to support condors. Historically, this is condor territory. In recent centuries the birds ranged from British Columbia to Baja California. Their numbers dwindled due to habitat loss, lead poisoning from ammunition, and DDT-thinned eggshells.
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Until a nest was spotted in a redwood tree in Monterey County in 2006, the last known California condor nest had been reported on April 12, 1905. Over a hundred years later and 15 years after the first captive bred condors were released, a biologist with Ventura Wildlife Society was tracking condors in Big Sur for three days when he spotted what looked like a nesting tree.
“…with his camera and binoculars, he waited. Brandt was equipped for an overnight stay in the woods, but before lunch, he saw the male condor -- a 9-year-old born at the Los Angeles Zoo and released into the wild in 1997 -- fly out of the nest, light on a nearby branch, then promptly return to the hollow.”
"I was thinking the nest would be much higher in the tree, but then the male kind of hops out, where I could see him," Brandt said. "It was like, ‘Oh my, gosh, this is what we've been waiting for,’ and your heart just kind of jumps right up into your throat."
Successful nesting in a redwood tree was a first for this new population and a milestone in condor recovery. It also was a sign that condors might succeed in the Klamath. The Monterey pair found in 2006 are still breeding and adding wild-hatched condor chicks to the population. After condor re-introduction showed success elsewhere and the Yurok’s biologists determined the Klamath to be suitable habitat, USFWS and NPS joined the project in 2008.
The area’s sparse human population means fewer hunting grounds and power lines, and a glut of carrion options, including washed-up whale carcasses, ensure plentiful food. The possible threat of lead poisoning from bullets and fishing tackle, however, remained a worry. Luckily, long-term studies revealed only trace amounts of the element in other scavengers such as turkey vultures and ravens—enough to prompt lead education efforts among local hunters but not derail the plan.
Now, 15 agencies and organizations are involved in the plan to release captive-bred condors into Redwood National and State Parks in Humboldt and Del Norte counties. They held the first round of public scoping meetings earlier this year and are drafting an Environmental Assessment (EA) of the restoration plan. This will receive a second round of public input before the final EA is published and project implementation begins in 2019.
The majority of [public meeting] attendees supported the idea and wanted to see birds in the air as soon as possible—especially a 94-year-old Yurok elder hoping to witness a condor flying up the Klamath in her lifetime. Meanwhile, a member of the Nez Perce tribe in Portland lauded the Yurok for exercising their sovereign rights in such a powerful way. "You inspire us," he said.
Not everyone is enthusiastic. Ranchers worry the project will affect their government subsidized cattle grazing on public land. Some hunters in Oregon where the condors might roam don’t want their state to follow California’s example and ban lead ammo. USFWS is sensitive to their concerns (more than these hunters and ranchers are of condors). They suggest that the new condor population be designated an “experimental non-essential population.” This designation . . .
. . .would offer more collaboration with stakeholders and ease blanket Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections where appropriate. “It would allow for a more surgical approach,” he says. For instance, Long explains, the standard ESA designation could prohibit logging altogether in certain parts of the birds' range. But by applying the sub-rule to the federal law, only certain logging activities—such as cutting down a nest tree—might be outlawed. It's an especially complicated piece of the regulatory puzzle that continues to be studied.
The project plans to rear captive-bred chicks at condor recovery facilities and release six birds a year for ten years, beginning in 2019. The birds will be held in a flight pen in a remote area of Redwood National Park. This helps the birds acclimate before being freed. Even afterward, food still will be offered outside the pen to allow biologists to recapture free-flying birds for tracking and testing (e.g., for lead and parasites). The ultimate hope is for the condors to begin breeding and to establish a wild population.
It’s an audacious plan based on vision, hope, and years of study, but that’s normal for conservation biologists and the Yurok. Despite European settlers, damming of the Klamath River, collapse of the salmon fisheries due to poor ocean health, drought, disease, and mismanagement of the dams’ water releases, the Yurok still live on their homeland and have worked to free the Klamath from dams.
The original project to re-introduce condors also combined vision, hope, and years of preparation. It began in 1987 with the last 22 wild condors taken into captivity and has resulted in a population of 446 birds (170 in captivity and 276 in the wild). Condors now have established themselves in California (166), Arizona/Utah (76) and Baja Mexico (34). Here are some of the latest achievements.
first condor nests of 2017
first condor hatched in Pinnacles in 120 years takes flight in 2016
slow-motion video of young condors in pinnacles national park
mama condor feeding chick
Twenty-four year old California condor #79, star of The Condor's Shadow, A Documentary Film, has nested every year in the wild since 2008.
more information on condors
Condor Grrrl Video links to a time-lapse video of a wild (not zoo) condor chick hatching in the nest and to information on the re-introduction program. I tell my story of unexpectedly seeing some of the last condors flying over Los Padres National Forest in 1982 before they were taken into captivity.
First flight of first wild condor hatched at Pinnacles NP in 120 years (the one shown in the video above) updates the program successes and reports some early set-backs.
Basic information on and history of their decline and re-introduction from California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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