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Condor Ridge

Native diversity

Condor Ridge celebrates the diversity of North American habitats and animals unique to our own continent. Desert bighorn sheep sprint nimbly up granite boulders; Harris' hawks swoop down on prey hiding in the prairie grasses; and brilliant green thick-billed parrots are seen and heard in towering pine forests.

You enter the Condor Ridge area via the Wild Animal Park's mature Conifer Forest, planted with pine, spruce, fir, and redwood trees. The first habitat you encounter in Condor Ridge is a pine forest that provides roosting places for endangered thick-billed parrots, which once ranged in forests across Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. At the base of the trees, you'll see western greater roadrunners gliding among the native shrubs. Right next door is a majestic bald eagle.

Next is a grassland habitat, home to porcupines, a significant denizen of North American forests. Also along the picturesque trail is a prairie ecosystem featuring a series of exhibits for endangered black-footed ferrets and desert tortoises as well as black-tailed prairie dogs, western burrowing owls, American magpies, and western Harris' hawks.

At the end of the trail is an observation deck with an interpretive center that focuses on recovery efforts for California condors and bighorn sheep. From the deck you can get up-close perspectives of elusive bighorn sheep as they scramble along a rocky hillside. North America's largest flying bird, the California condor, can be seen on boulders and cliffs inside their large aviary. The California condor, which has never before been displayed at the Wild Animal Park, is symbolic of successful native species recovery programs.

Fun facts

• In many of the exhibits, horticulturists have utilized the existing native vegetation.
• Telescopes at the observation deck offer close-up views of some of the Wild Animal Park's animals and of the San Pasqual Valley.
• During the construction of Condor Ridge, Indian (Kumeyaay) artifacts were discovered. An archeologist was called in to evaluate the find and the exhibit plans were changed so the site would not be affected. An ethnobotanical interpretive walk highlights plants that were once used by the local Kumeyaay people for food, clothing, tools, shelter, medicine, and religious ceremonies.