FOUR CALIFORNIA CONDORS FROM WILD ANIMAL PARK RELEASED IN MEXICAN MOUNTAINS BAJA CALIFORNIA

JULY 22, 2005

Two hours after field biologists for the San Diego Zoo's department of Conservation and Research for Endangered Species (CRES) opened the gates of a holding pen, three of four California condors took their first flight into the Sierra San Pedro de Martír range.

The fourth condor ventured out of the pen four and a half hours later in the Mexican national park. Two female condors, numbers 321 and 322, and two male condors, numbers 323 and 325, joined nine other California condors released as part of the California Condor Recovery Program.

Condors had not been seen in Baja California since the late 1930s until they were reintroduced in 2002. The San Pedro de Martír's pristine land is an ideal reintroduction area, offering the birds isolation and plenty of room to soar.

All four birds hatched at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, one of only four animal facilities partnering with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, Arizona Game and Fish, Bureau of Land Management, and numerous Mexican partners in the recovery program. This release marks the first time condors hatched and raised at the Wild Animal Park have been released in Mexico. Condors previously released in San Pedro de Martír may have been hatched at the Wild Animal Park, the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, or at the Los Angeles Zoo, but Los Angeles Zoo staff had reared them all in preparation for release.

CRES field biologists will release two more condors later this year in Mexico. California condors are also released in the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties as well as in the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. There are now 125 California condors flying free in the four release sites and an additional 154 condors in captivity. The Wild Animal Park is currently home to 26 condors.